Eight years ago all the press could talk about before the visit to Britain of Pope Benedict XVI was child abuse. The media predicted the week would be at best a failure and at worst a disaster, but had to re-write the script on day one when the sun and 70,000 people came out to greet the pontiff at Bellahouston. The visit was such a success that the prime minister, David Cameron, who had found a reason not to greet the pope at the start of the state visit, made a point of seeing him off at the end, trying to bathe in the reflected glory.
Yet the feeling at the end of the papal visit was less one of triumph than of healing. People were ready to move on from the scandal and focus instead on the Church’s mission. Catholics let out a collective sigh of relief. We could look to the future not the past.
Last month all the press could talk about before the visit to Ireland of Pope Francis was child abuse and that is all they have talked about since. This Pope, who more than any other has focused the world’s attention on humility and the relief of poverty, instead of contraception and homosexuality, should have been able to move the agenda on. Instead he allowed the Church’s past sins to dominate the future.
I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked in the course of my “audience with” evenings whether I regret joining the Catholic Church because of the prevalence of child abuse. I ask: is there no child abuse in the CofE? In the Scout movement? Children’s homes? Schools? Overseas aid agencies? And of course where does most of it take place? In families. Should I lose faith in all of those groups as well?
However, even if it were entirely unique to the Catholic Church, why would I regret joining it? I did so because I believe it to be the source of God’s truth and that cannot be vitiated. I joined also because I believe in its mission and that too has not changed.
Have the people who ask me this question stopped watching the BBC? Have they stopped giving to Oxfam after the revelations of sexual misconduct? Some indeed will have done the latter but whom does that affect other than the world’s poorest?
Of course nobody could expect the Pope to ignore the issue and he was right to express repentance. But he might have pointed out a few other important matters, such as the Church giving more in aid than any nation, the work done by priests (well over 90 per cent of whom are untouched by allegations), nuns and monks among the most needy and the role he expects lay Catholics to perform as witnesses to Christ.
I was recently chatting to a priest who is now in his late 60s. He commented that these days, when he gets on a Tube train, people look at him and turn away with curling lip. Once they would have looked at his cloth with respect. I have no doubt they still would if they knew what his average day was like, but among the public few now know much about the life of the clergy or the work of a parish. For that matter they know precious little about the essential Christian message.
The public takes its impression of the Church from media headlines as it does of government, the NHS and any world leader or minor celebrity. So, while acknowledging wrongdoing, let us nevertheless try to change the headlines from the past to the future.
There is a massive challenge to all Christianity in the growth of secularisation, atheism and just plain indifference; in the decline of religious teaching and widespread ignorance of Church teaching; in the diminution of church congregations and in vocations; and in world poverty and upheaval.
Daily, missionaries battle ignorance, want and disease, and some die in the process. Elsewhere people can be thrown in prison merely for being Christians or can be killed. In this country, where the PM is a vicar’s daughter, ordinary Brits can have their livelihoods threatened just by offering to pray for somebody.
A clarion call to address those problems is what we need to hear from the Vatican, because they are still capable of being tackled. But what was done in the past can never be undone and although it is right to focus on it with a view to making sure it cannot happen again, it is wrong to let it dominate the horizon.
Pope Benedict understood that and struck the right balance. Pope Francis would do well to take a leaf from his book.
Ann Widdecombe is a novelist, broadcaster and former prisons minister
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.