Photo: RNZ Pacific / Eleisha Foon
Warning: This story contains references to sexual abuse of children
A New York Times story details the Catholic Church's so-called geographic solution to problematic priests - hiding them on remote Pacific islands
The legacy of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and the tactic of moving abusers to new dioceses without addressing the problem has been well-documented for decades. But the latest story is close to home - Catholic clergy or missionaries accused of sexual abuse, who were transferred to the Pacific Islands.
Some went on to abuse more victims.
New Zealander Pete McKenzie is a freelance journalist who broke the story for the New York Times, and in today's episode of The Detail he explains a pattern of using the Pacific as a "dumping ground" for accused or even convicted abusers.
His reporting covers the cases of 34 men from New Zealand, Australia, the US and the UK. Of those, 13 were known to have abused at the time of their transfers, demonstrating what McKenzie says is known as the "geographic cure" - moving the accused to avoid scrutiny.
"It's a temporary cure to the problems facing these men in terms of law enforcement," he says.
"In New Zealand, for example, we know that many priests were shuffled from community to community, from parish to parish, after allegations of abuse were raised against them.
"Some of those priests that were shuffled around New Zealand, shuffled around the US, shuffled around Australia, were then moved abroad to the Pacific Islands."
McKenzie's reporting also shows that, even in cases where there's no evidence of a deliberate cover-up, children were endangered by abusive priests or missionaries being moved into a region that he says was especially vulnerable.
"The deeply religious nature of the Pacific Islands; the fact that it's so far from authorities that might be pursuing these men for prosecution; the fact that it's so far from senior Catholic clergy who theoretically could have applied some level of scrutiny; the fact that they were moved often without local officials being told of their background, being told of the allegations against them, all created the kind of perfect conditions for reoffending, with very few protections against that from happening.
"In many of these cases, we can't know why priests or missionaries were moved, but we do know that they were moved to a place which was the perfect place to hide."
But in some of the cases, there's clear evidence that senior clergy did know that the priest they were moving had a record of abuse.
"In some cases, we know that they were deliberately moved so they wouldn't cause further problems," McKenzie says.
In the episode, he refers to an Australian priest named Denis McAlinden, who had a history of abusing young girls.
"To get rid of the problem, they bought him a plane ticket to Papua New Guinea and said he should move along, and he spent five years in Papua New Guinea as a result."
One of the documents that McKenzie read in the course of his reporting was an inquiry into sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, in Australia.
The report details a letter about McAlinden, sent by a monsignor to a vicar in 1976. The monsignor wrote: "Slowly, very slowly, [McAlinden] admitted some indiscretions but then agreed that it was a condition that had been with him for many years. He feels no such inclination towards the mature female but towards the little ones only."
McKenzie says that the response to his reporting from the church was varied, with some not responding, others declining to comment, some saying they weren't responsible, and others saying they only found out about the alleged abuse after the men had left the Pacific.
Pope Francis arrived in Singapore yesterday, the last stop of his 12-day tour through South-East Asia and Oceania. He is reported to have briefly addressed abuse in a speech to officials in Dili, Timor Leste, saying:
"Let us not forget the many children and adolescents whose dignity has been violated. The phenomenon is manifesting all over the world
"We are all called to do everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people."
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