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
Final survivor resigns from Pope’s commission on clerical abuse of minors
Posted: Fri, 3 Mar 2017 10:33
The last remaining survivor of clerical abuse on the Pontifical Commission for Protection of Minors, Marie Collins, has resigned from it "to maintain [her] integrity".
She said in a statement "I find it impossible to listen to public statements about the deep concern in the Church for the care of those whose lives have been blighted by abuse, yet to watch privately as a congregation in the Vatican refuses to even acknowledge their letters!"
The 17-member Commission was set up by the Pope to make proposals to "repair the damage, to attain justice, and to prevent, by all means possible, the recurrence of similar incidents in the future".
Ms Collins, who is Irish, complained that the Commission is deprived of adequate resources and of the "reluctance of some members of the Vatican Curia" to implement "one of the simplest recommendations of the Commission" despite approval by the Pope".
Collins described that as the "last straw".
She considers "it is devastating in 2017 to see that these men still can put other concerns before the safety of children and vulnerable adults".
She said she would have raised such matters with the Pope, but had never had the opportunity to meet him in her three years with the Commission. Despite not having the chance to meet him she says that she still believes "he understand[s] the horror of abuse and the need for those who would hurt minors to be stopped".
Nevertheless, she set out a catalogue of his failed or impotent initiatives, including those to make responsible senior clerics accountable, and noted her disappointment over the reduction of punishments against abusive priests that Francis had allowed in some cases.
The other survivor, Peter Saunders, founder of the (British) National Association for People Abused in Childhood, has not received any communication from the Commission, including notification of meetings since drawing the media's attention a year ago to the Commission's failure to deliver on its promises of reform and accountability.
Keith Porteous Wood, executive Director of the National Secular Society commented: "Marie Collins' principled resignation, and the reasons she set out for it, destroys the little remaining credibility of the Commission's wish, far less resolve, to recommend effective measures to force the Church to bring perpetrators to account in secular courts. Taken in conjunction with the mounting criticisms of the Pope's softening resolve in this area, it is now clear that, in respect of clerical child abuse, the Church and the Vatican are both unwilling to and incapable of following international norms of justice and human rights. It is not inconceivable that the International Criminal Court may need to become involved.
"Every country should ensure that their laws require that, firstly, the failure to report to the police or other secular regulators reasonable suspicions of abuse of minors in institutional settings constitutes a criminal offence and, secondly, that any statutes of limitations do not apply to cases involving abuse of minors, where it often takes several decades for victims to summon the courage to report the abuse to which they have been subjected."
Catholic education charity faces inquiry over handling of child abuse claims
Posted: Wed, 14 Dec 2016 15:34
A statutory inquiry has been opened by the Charity Commission into the St Laurence Education Trust and Ampleforth Abbey, over the Catholic charities' handling of sexual abuse allegations.
The St Laurence Education Trust runs two prestigious independent Roman Catholic schools, the Ampleforth College and St Martin's Ampleforth.
The Ampleforth Abbey religious community shares a site with Ampleforth College, which is at the centre of child sexual abuse allegations.
The Commission said that the St Laurence Education Trust faced an investigation over "the charity trustees' approach to safeguarding and handling of allegations of sexual abuse" at Ampleforth College.
"The investigation follows media reporting regarding individuals with links to Ampleforth College in connection with allegations of sexual abuse. The Commission has been engaging with the trustees on this matter since August 2016. A decision was taken to open the statutory inquiry on 15 November 2016 after considering further information from the trustees and the Commission's statutory duties."
The Charity Commission is not investigating the allegations of abuse themselves, but the governance and response of the charity to allegations.
The statutory inquiry will examine whether there has been "misconduct or mismanagement" by the charities' trustees and their "handling of safeguarding matters".
Additionally, the investigation will consider "how the charities dealt with the risks to the charities and their beneficiaries arising from alleged abuse incidents, including the application of their safeguarding policy and procedures."
It will also look at "the administration, governance and management of the charities by the trustees and whether or not the trustees have complied with and fulfilled their duties and responsibilities as trustees under charity law".
The Commission stressed that it was not a "safeguarding authority" and that its inquiries into the St Laurence Education Trust and Ampleforth Abbey, a religious community that shares a site with Ampleforth College, would not go into the investigation of "allegations of abuse or actual incidents of abuse, whether historic or recent."
"Anyone with concerns about specific incidents of alleged abuses, whether historic or recent, regarding any charity, should report their concerns to the police and the relevant safeguarding authorities," the Commission said.
Richard Scorer, a lawyer representing many victims of abuse in the Catholic church, and an NSS council member, said that "there have been serious concerns for many years about the handling of complaints of child abuse at Ampleforth and indeed in the wider English Benedictine Congregation. These concerns have intensified following recent media stories. The decision of the Charities Commission to initiate a formal inquiry into these issues indicates the seriousness of the problem. It is imperative that religious organisations are held to the same standards as secular organisations when it comes to child protection."
