What you are about to read will probably be upsetting to
most of you. You have to keep in mind that these people who sexually
abuse minors are not vague Satanists, Mafia kingpins, heroine addicts or
members of Gay and Lesbian Associations. They are the same moral
leaders who scream from their pulpits about the evils of promiscuity,
homosexuality and fornication. One of the worst artifacts of modern
Christendom to face humanity in contemporary times is the increase in
clergy sexual abuse.
The problem of Christian clergy child sexual abuse is so epidemic in westernised societies that priesthood has been stereotyped as paedophilia. It is not limited to one particular brand name of Christianity. The amazing thing is the Christian clergy does provide a safe heaven for paedophiles. Apart from being privately rebuked and quietly moved to another location, the clerics are allowed to continue their preaching.
As a child Patricia Stevens dreamt of being ordained as a minister. Fifteen years later, as a postgraduate student of theology at Cambridge, she was close to fulfilling that ambition. She was sent on work experience to preach at a large church in London where she was sexually abused and raped by the senior priest supervising her.
As a student minister, Patricia Stevens firmly believed in not having sex outside marriage. She recalls how the priest told her that she would never understand the love of God unless she had sex with a man. Patricia says that on one occasion when no one was around, she was forced to have sex with him. 'He told me it was God's will to have sex with me, and when I turned him down, I wasn't obedient to God. He told me to stop struggling and overpowered me. I cried when he wouldn't stop and the more I begged him to leave me alone the more aggressive he became.'
The priest told Patricia that she should not tell anything to anyone. It was the thing that God wanted and He would be pleased with her. Though the abuse happened a number of years ago, Patricia recently attempted to commit suicide several times because she still cannot come to terms with what happened. Her hope of getting justice from the church authorities got dashed when the priest denied rape. He was asked to move parishes but allowed to go on preaching.
Dr. Tanya Jenkins, a woman priest remains devastated three years after she was sexually assaulted by Canon Geoffrey Hewitt of Bangor Cathedral. The incident happened when Jenkins invited him for a coffee at her home after a funeral. It emerged when officials received another complaint from a worker saying that Hewitt had patted her bottom and emailed lewd poems to her.
Hewitt admitted both counts of sexual harassment at a Church tribunal, but was allowed to keep his job. However his parishioners refused to have him back and he was forced to seek another parish.
In 2003, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams faced questions over his role in helping Hewitt to get away with his crime of sexual assault. Britain's leading investigator of sexual abuse in the Church is Margaret Kennedy who is a pioneer in raising the issue of child abuse. She has worked very hard in raising the issue of child abuse in the Roman Catholic and other Christian Churches. Margaret described the scandal involving Rowan Williams as shocking and deplorable. Margaret Kennedy believes that this is just the tip of iceberg. She says there are hundreds of frightened women who are too ashamed to deal with the situation they find themselves in. Many girls have been left in a poor mental state, while the clergymen are rebuked privately and moved on. Most often their victims are left isolated in communities unable to face the idea how a man of God could do something so wrong. As the row over homosexual bishops continues to rock the Church of England, the revelations of sexual abuse threaten to plunge the Church further into crisis.
In a shocking documentary screened by the BBC named 'Sex Crimes and the Vatican' the Pope Benedict XVI played a key role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. The Pontiff then was Cardinal Thomas Ratzinger when he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety. The document urged that victims and witnesses must be silenced by threatening them of being excommunicated if they continued to repeat the allegations.
In July 2008, the Pope Benedict XVI, before a huge congregation assembled in Sydney's St. Mary's Cathedral made a historic full apology for child sex abuse by the Catholic priests and clergymen. The Pope also called for compensation and demanded punishment for those guilty of the evil.
Many cases of abuse show how the clerics use religion and their position of authority to coerce young women into sex, saying things like, 'God wants you to love me,' and 'concubines were biblical'. In one instance, it is claimed that a clergyman told a girl: 'God has made you beautiful so you can fulfill the desires of Christian men.'
In the last few years, there are over 200,000 cases of clergy abuse in the United States every year. No Christian church is exempt from physical and sexual abuse of children by churchmen. The claims that 'my church has no such problems' are always proven false in time.
The problem of Christian clergy child sexual abuse is so epidemic in westernised societies that priesthood has been stereotyped as paedophilia. It is not limited to one particular brand name of Christianity. The amazing thing is the Christian clergy does provide a safe heaven for paedophiles. Apart from being privately rebuked and quietly moved to another location, the clerics are allowed to continue their preaching.
As a child Patricia Stevens dreamt of being ordained as a minister. Fifteen years later, as a postgraduate student of theology at Cambridge, she was close to fulfilling that ambition. She was sent on work experience to preach at a large church in London where she was sexually abused and raped by the senior priest supervising her.
As a student minister, Patricia Stevens firmly believed in not having sex outside marriage. She recalls how the priest told her that she would never understand the love of God unless she had sex with a man. Patricia says that on one occasion when no one was around, she was forced to have sex with him. 'He told me it was God's will to have sex with me, and when I turned him down, I wasn't obedient to God. He told me to stop struggling and overpowered me. I cried when he wouldn't stop and the more I begged him to leave me alone the more aggressive he became.'
The priest told Patricia that she should not tell anything to anyone. It was the thing that God wanted and He would be pleased with her. Though the abuse happened a number of years ago, Patricia recently attempted to commit suicide several times because she still cannot come to terms with what happened. Her hope of getting justice from the church authorities got dashed when the priest denied rape. He was asked to move parishes but allowed to go on preaching.
Dr. Tanya Jenkins, a woman priest remains devastated three years after she was sexually assaulted by Canon Geoffrey Hewitt of Bangor Cathedral. The incident happened when Jenkins invited him for a coffee at her home after a funeral. It emerged when officials received another complaint from a worker saying that Hewitt had patted her bottom and emailed lewd poems to her.
Hewitt admitted both counts of sexual harassment at a Church tribunal, but was allowed to keep his job. However his parishioners refused to have him back and he was forced to seek another parish.
In 2003, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams faced questions over his role in helping Hewitt to get away with his crime of sexual assault. Britain's leading investigator of sexual abuse in the Church is Margaret Kennedy who is a pioneer in raising the issue of child abuse. She has worked very hard in raising the issue of child abuse in the Roman Catholic and other Christian Churches. Margaret described the scandal involving Rowan Williams as shocking and deplorable. Margaret Kennedy believes that this is just the tip of iceberg. She says there are hundreds of frightened women who are too ashamed to deal with the situation they find themselves in. Many girls have been left in a poor mental state, while the clergymen are rebuked privately and moved on. Most often their victims are left isolated in communities unable to face the idea how a man of God could do something so wrong. As the row over homosexual bishops continues to rock the Church of England, the revelations of sexual abuse threaten to plunge the Church further into crisis.
In a shocking documentary screened by the BBC named 'Sex Crimes and the Vatican' the Pope Benedict XVI played a key role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. The Pontiff then was Cardinal Thomas Ratzinger when he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety. The document urged that victims and witnesses must be silenced by threatening them of being excommunicated if they continued to repeat the allegations.
In July 2008, the Pope Benedict XVI, before a huge congregation assembled in Sydney's St. Mary's Cathedral made a historic full apology for child sex abuse by the Catholic priests and clergymen. The Pope also called for compensation and demanded punishment for those guilty of the evil.
Many cases of abuse show how the clerics use religion and their position of authority to coerce young women into sex, saying things like, 'God wants you to love me,' and 'concubines were biblical'. In one instance, it is claimed that a clergyman told a girl: 'God has made you beautiful so you can fulfill the desires of Christian men.'
In the last few years, there are over 200,000 cases of clergy abuse in the United States every year. No Christian church is exempt from physical and sexual abuse of children by churchmen. The claims that 'my church has no such problems' are always proven false in time.
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Written by: Ibrahim Nazim
8 January 2010, Friday
22 MuHarram 1431 
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