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
NSS raises alarm over major flaws in Church’s sex abuse inquiry
Posted: Wed, 24 Feb 2016 11:54
The National Secular Society has warned that the Church's inquiry into their handling of the Bishop Peter Ball sex abuse case could leave significant questions unanswered.
Bishop Ball was jailed last year for sexual offences, after escaping justice twenty years previously. A letter-writing campaign at the time saw support for the bishop come from senior establishment figures, including a member of the royal family.
The Church of England has now announced that an inquiry will look at the case to establish how much senior figures in the Church of England knew about Ball's crimes.
However, the NSS has criticised the terms of reference of the Church of England's review and warned that they do not go to the heart of the failures which contributed to Ball escaping justice for twenty years. In this period one victim committed suicide.
The review will establish "what information was available to the Church of England ... concerning Peter Ball's abuse of individuals; who had this information and when. To provide a detailed timeline and transparent account of the response within the Church of England. To consider whether the response was in accordance with recognised good practice, and compliant with Church of England policy and legislation as well as statutory policy and legislation."
But the review into the case will be carried out behind closed doors. Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, warned that "while this may encourage greater frankness of those giving evidence, it will be regarded as lacking openness and transparency, qualities already shown to be sorely lacking in the Church over such matters even today."
The NSS, which has significant history and expertise researching clerical sex abuse and campaigning for justice for the survivors, has warned that the terms of reference need to specifically include the questionable role played by the Church in bringing undue influence to bear on the administration of justice concerning Ball's abuse, and about the bullying of victims and whistle-blowers into silence. The Society has written to the Church of England requesting these changes, which were reported almost in their entirety by the Telegraph.
Mr Wood wrote to the Church of England:
"Could I respectfully request that, in order to make the Inquiry credible, the terms of reference need to make specific reference to establishing the extent of historic and current bullying by senior figures in the Church of alleged victims and whistle-blowers. As is well known, this bullying has led to a suicide and considerable psychological harm beyond the abuse itself.
"The terms of reference need also specifically establish the extent to which Church officials sought – and/or encouraged others - to intervene with the CPS, the police and dissuading complainants from reporting to the police. It is vital that it establishes whether such interventions were made genuinely believing Ball to be innocent, having made a reasonable assessment of all available complaints and evidence. The information already in the public domain raises very uncomfortable questions.
Speaking in the House of Lords in January this year the Bishop of Durham insisted that at the time the Church believed Ball to be innocent, despite the allegations.
Vatican tells new bishops they don’t “necessarily” need to report sex abuse of children
Posted: Thu, 11 Feb 2016 13:40
The National Secular Society has expressed its concern over guidelines for newly appointed bishops published by the Vatican which state that bishops do not always need to report clerical sex abuse to the authorities.
The guidance reportedly states that "According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds".
The NSS, which has campaigned for ten years, including at the United Nations, to expose clerical abuse and the rape and sexual abuse of minors, strongly criticised the guidance for flouting secular law and the recommendations of the United Nations.
Keith Porteous Wood, NSS executive director, commented: "It is unfortunately no surprise that these guidelines encourage bishops not to report suspected abuse, rather than obligating them to do so as the UN recommended specifically to the Vatican in 2014."
In 2014 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended to the Holy See that the Vatican "Establish clear rules, mechanisms and procedures for the mandatory reporting of all suspected cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation to law enforcement authorities."
Crucially, the UN CRC said that the Vatican must ensure that "all priests, religious personnel and individuals working under the authority of the Holy See are made aware of their reporting obligations and of the fact that, in case of conflict, these obligations prevail over Canon law provisions."
Mr Wood added: "The Vatican has ignored the vast majority of the UN's recommendations, even resorting to attacking the Committee that made them. The Vatican claims disingenuously that it has no obligation to even attempt to instruct the Church worldwide to report abuse to secular authorities, and to instruct that evidence, including that which is secreted under the auspices of the Vatican, be preserved and provided to those authorities as needed.
"Instead, the Pope appointed a powerless commission to protect minors. If he had really wanted to curtail the rampant worldwide child abuse and rape committed by clerics and bring justice to bear on perpetrators and their accomplices, he need only have followed the uncompromising recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
"The Pope also appointed a Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith tribunal to examine bishops' behaviour. The tribunal has clearly been established by the Church at the highest level to provide an escape route and create the illusion that bishops are being subjected to justice, but for canonical 'justice' the ultimate penalty – rarely imposed – is defrocking.
"These developments in the new papacy have been a triumph for public relations, but serve only to add to the abuse of victims by the institution to which minors were entrusted. Under the current papacy and to this day the vast majority of clerical abusers and their facilitators continue to escape justice or even exposure, and the victims continue to be denied compensation with the Church's full and considerable might."
In September 2015 a report drafted by the NSS into rape, sexual abuse and violence against minors by Catholic clerics was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council. Additionally that month an oral statement, prepared in part by the NSS, was delivered by Josephine Macintosh of the European Humanist Federation which strongly criticised the Holy See's failure to protect children.
Prior to that, the National Secular Society was a key witness before the UN Human Rights Council at the private examination of the Holy See over child abuse. The Committee later accused the Holy See of failing to acknowledge the "extent of the crimes committed." The Committee ultimately made searing criticisms of the Vatican's response to the "sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide."
