The Detail: Paedophile priests dumped in the Pacific
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Warning: This story contains references to sexual abuse of childrenA 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.
Content retrieved from: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/526860/the-detail-paedophile-priests-dumped-in-the-pacific.
