Religious organisations and communities are frequent targets of abusers.
Religious institutions are often well-placed and strongly motivated to cover up incidents of sexual and physical abuse.
We work to hold these organisations to account and get justice for abuse victims and survivors.
Many religious organisations enjoy a close relationship with the establishment and tend to see themselves as above the law. This can increase the risk of abuse, prevent perpetrators from facing justice, and impede efforts to support and compensate victims and survivors of abuse.
Those intent on abuse are often attracted to religious institutions. Such organisations give access to, and sometimes extreme control over, numerous children and vulnerable adults.
When abuse does occur, religious organisations often act to protect the reputation of the institution above the rights of the victim. They may pressure the victim to stay silent and move the perpetrator to somewhere unaware of their reputation.
Many religious institutions also have influence and connections that enable them to evade justice and scrutiny, often for decades.
All forms of abuse, be they sexual, physical or psychological, can cause serious harm. Victims of abuse in religious settings have suffered physical and mental health problems, including addiction, self-harm and suicide.
Abuse can take place in any religious setting. That's why we work at the national and international level to hold religious organisations to account for safeguarding failings, and to ensure victims and survivors can get justice.
Take action!
1. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
2. Write to your MP
Ask your MP to support our work to end abuse in religion settings
3. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
UN castigates Vatican over clerical sexual abuse of minors
Posted: Wed, 23 Jun 2021 17:39
UN special rapporteurs have criticised the Vatican over child sexual abuse in stronger terms than ever before, highlighting that there have been "tens of thousands of alleged victims" over "decades".
This week the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights has released a letter which it sent to the Holy See in April (English translation available).
It details significant abuse in eight countries and highlights concerns over the Vatican's "obstructionist practices".
The letter expressed regret that there had been no response to a separate communication which the rapporteurs sent in 2019.
The latest letter has only been made public, as they had threatened, because it had not been replied to either.
'Obstructionist practices'
The rapporteurs referred to "persistent allegations" that the Catholic Church had obstructed and failed to cooperate with domestic judicial proceedings, in order to "prevent" accountability for abusers and compensation for victims.
They urged the Vatican to "refrain from obstructionist practices" and to "cooperate fully" with the judicial authorities within states.
The rapporteurs also raised concerns over concordats and other agreements which the Holy See has negotiated with states, which limit civil authorities' ability to "interrogate" or "compel the production of documents or prosecute persons associated with the Catholic Church".
They cited as an example a refusal to provide files to a prosecutor in Argentina, which the Catholic Church justified by citing a concordat which had already been declared unconstitutional.
The rapporteurs also expressed regret that the Vatican had not yet made it mandatory to report crimes to the civilian authorities, as the UN urged in 2014.
The letter also highlighted a series of other concerns, including that the church had:
- Undermined legislative efforts to "improve the justiciability of sexual violence against children".
- Allowed perpetrators and concealers to escape national judicial proceedings.
- Invited aggressors to flee to the Vatican and then denied their extradition.
The National Secular Society has observed numerous examples of the various complaints cited by the rapporteurs. The NSS sent the rapporteurs two detailed reports on the subject last year.
NSS comment
NSS president Keith Porteous Wood said: "The Vatican has largely ignored the recommendations of UN experts for years, despite the horrific extent of clerical abuse becoming ever more evident.
"We commend the rapporteurs for their efforts on behalf of justice and abuse victims. We urge state parties to support victims by applying pressure on the Vatican to conform to human rights obligations and to heed what the UN experts call for."
Vatican accused of meddling in Italy's legislative process
Meanwhile the Vatican has been accused of "unprecedented" meddling in Italy's legislative process by Italian politicians and activists after it formally opposed an Italian bill expanding anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people.
The Holy See claims the proposed law violates a 1985 concordat regulating relations between the Catholic Church and the Italian state.
This concordat amended the earlier Lateran Treaty, which was signed in 1929 by Benito Mussolini on behalf of the Italian government and later confirmed by the Italian constitution of 1948.
Note on concordats
The website concordatwatch.eu details the many concordats which are still in effect.
Image by Vali Ciudin from Pixabay.
French cardinal culpable over failure to disclose child sexual abuse
Posted: Fri, 5 Mar 2021 09:17
France's top court has confirmed that Philippe Barbarin, until recently France's most senior Catholic cleric, is culpable for failing to report sexual assaults of minors by a priest in his charge.
The Cour de Cassation's ruling reversed an acquittal of the cardinal, who was the archbishop of Lyon until last year, on the same charge at the Court of Appeal.
The appeal court ruling itself overturned a guilty verdict handed down by the court of first instance.
The duty to report crimes is mandatory under French law. But following the Cour de Cassation ruling, the state made no application for criminal sanctions against Cardinal Barbarin, so there cannot now be a criminal sanction against him.
The Court of Appeal will sit next month to decide what the damages against him should amount to.
Barbarin failed to report sexual abuse by a priest, Bernard Preynat, who has since been convicted of abusing boy scouts while serving as scoutmaster of a Catholic troop.
A lawyer told the court that Preynat had abused an estimated 3,000-4,000 boy scout victims between 1971 and 1991.
Preynat was only recently defrocked even though senior clerics had known of his abuses for decades.
The conflicting verdicts turned largely on whether the duty to report passed from the cardinal to the victims themselves when they became adults. The Cour de Cassation rejected this argument put forward by Barbarin's lawyers.
The courts also differed on the extent to which the statute of limitations – the maximum time limit after the event for bringing charges – applied.
Victims' group La Parole Libérée, whose struggle for justice was depicted in the film "By the Grace of God", brought the case in a private prosecution.
The National Secular Society contributed to the costs of bringing the case.
NSS comment
NSS president Keith Porteous Wood commented: "While I welcome the latest ruling, the huge toll of avoidable abuse and irreparable harm of victims that this saga reveals does not reflect well on the administration of French justice.
"I hope that, given the outcome, the public prosecutors will reflect on why they refused to bring a case themselves, to oppose both the private prosecution through all its stages and any criminal sanction for the cardinal.
"It is alleged credibly that dozens of bishops have concealed abuse of minors without sanction and bishops appear in practice immune from the law requiring reporting of such crimes. What other organisation would be permitted to act in such a lawless way?
"Failure to report also facilitates the abuse to continue, as Preynat's decades of abuse demonstrates so painfully.
"France desperately needs a further much more effective mandatory reporting law to require disclosure of institutional abuse of minors. Even more important, it also needs to ensure it is applied rigorously to everyone, without fear or favour."
Image: Philippe Barbarin, via Flickr / Wikimedia Commons, © MEDEF [CC BY-SA 2.0] (cropped)
