From abuse scandals to the complexity of teaching RE, the challenges for today’s Church and its schools are myriad – but their mission is now more important than ever

I am sure that most lay Catholics think it has taken too long for our Church to get a grip on the horror of child abuse. Alas, part of the way in which that needs to be done is to shine a light on the evidence of abuse across the world. To stop abuse happening again, you have to own up to what has happened in the past and to be contrite – and not just appear contrite.
       
Schools have not by any means been the main stamping ground for these horrors. But schools inevitably are places where abuse is likely to occur – not least, as we now know, at some of our most prestigious Catholic schools – unless the greatest care is taken. Abuse in the past grew amid worries that rooting it out would involve reputational risk. This, we all recognise, was one main reason for a culture of pretence and obfuscation. While the Church put itself in the position of being a stern and rigorous enforcer of rules on sexual morals that were not followed by many devout, sacrament- receiving Catholics, it was seeking to hide its own culpability for awful sins which broke every rule of decent moral conduct. 

I listened the other day to a lecture at Campion Hall in Oxford by Archbishop Charles Scicluna, to whom Pope Francis has given the lead role in the fight against clerical abuse. I was impressed by what he said, by his openness and by his comprehensive approach. He did not seem bowed down by what must be a deeply disquieting task. I have great confidence in him. Pope Francis, of course, called an important meeting recently of the heads of the bishops’ conferences from around the world to discuss how to tackle this crisis. In passing, I think it is a cause of grave concern that some senior members of the Church have sought to pin blame on this Pope for mistakes made years, even decades, before the start of his papacy, in order to undermine his reforming and inclusive leadership of the Church and, in some respects, plainly to pursue personal agendas. I am sure that nothing will dissuade Pope Francis from seeking to cleanse the Church of the evil of abuse.