Paul Vallely: The Catholic church deserves to do its penance

Church leaders know they must address the problem of paedophile priests, and they want to help their victims

I received a letter yesterday from the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. It was asking me for a £250 "one-off" donation to help fund the office they set up last year to sort out the mess over paedophile priests. I read through the letter with a mounting sense of incredulity and irritation. A couple of hours later the news came through that the Pope had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law as Archbishop of Boston over his role in covering up sexual abuse of children by priests there.

The case against the church in this country is far less grave than in the United States, but even so there are parallels in the lessons to be learnt. Earlier this month the US courts forced the church to hand over thousands of pages of internal personnel files on how it has handled sex abuse cases over the past 20 years. They produced some shocking disclosures.

The first 2,200 pages revealed not just paedophilia but allegations of a 15-year-old boy being traded cocaine for oral sex, along with adulterous relationships and various admissions of sexual misconduct. There are another 8,800 pages – concerning 58 more priests – yet to come.

Cardinal Law's offence was that he shuffled these offenders around the diocese, moving them on to another parish where they could abuse again. In the early days he had the excuse of ignorance – that child abuse was thought of as a sin, rather than a compulsive disorder, and the church does, after all, believe in redemption. But some of the files relate to the late 1990s. Law wrote to one abuser that his letter of defence was "a beautiful testament to the depth of your faith and the courage of your heart". His letter ended: "You have touched me deeply, Bob."

It was just one of several letters in the records that showed Law as lavishly understanding towards accused abusers – and revealing a pattern of lax or negligent behaviour by the archdiocese in handling abusive priests. It also contradicted his public assertion that no serving priest had been credibly accused of child abuse. Boston archdiocese currently faces about 450 civil suits from alleged victims, which lawyers estimate could cost the church $100m (£60m).

Many insurance companies which used to offer the church cover for claims from civil suits are said to be no longer prepared to take the risk. The archdiocese is considering filing for bankruptcy as a result. And that is just Boston. Some 200 cases are said to be pending in California. Nationwide, total payments made since 1985 are said to range from $350m to as much as $1bn, though no one really knows since courts imposed confidentiality clauses.

What is damaging to the church about all this is not just the behaviour of the abuser priests. (Let us not enter into arguments here about celibacy and an all-male clerical culture.) What is incontestable is that the case reveals the mindset of a church which has shown itself to be more concerned with its institutional reputation – and with protecting priests – than it is with the care of the victims.

It is this point which brought the priests of Boston into open revolt against their cardinal this week, in what may have proved the final straw for Law, whom the Vatican had hitherto backed as a bulwark of conservative orthodoxy against the tide of liberalism among American Catholics. Vatican-watchers have, until now, insisted that Rome just hasn't registered how bad the scandal in the US and elsewhere really is. Perhaps yesterday's resignation shows they are finally getting the picture.

Here in Britain the church's response to continuing criticism is that it two years ago set up the Nolan review to improve child protection and the handling of abuse allegations within the church. Lord Nolan made more than 50 recommendations, all of which have been, or are being, implemented. The trouble is that new claims, and new details, on pre-Nolan cases are still trickling out, and none of them sound the less scandalous for having taken place some years back. All contribute to the perception that the church is laggardly in dealing with paedophile priests and cares less than it should for the pain of those who suffered at their hands.

Church leaders know they have to address that problem, and are privately talking about new ways of reaching out to help victims. But they need to develop new sensitivities, and letters like the one appealing to Catholics for cash to fund the Nolan programme reveal they have not yet developed that sensibility.

Cardinal Murphy O'Connor recently wrote to all his parishes saying that the whole church is under attack. Yet that is not how it feels in the pews. The theory is that the church is made up of all the people of God; the practice is that the church has been run primarily in the interests of the clerical institution. Which is why, when they asked me for money, my first thought was: "You got yourselves into this mess; you get yourselves out."

There is an old-fashioned piece of theology which may apply here. Catholicism traditionally taught that the dead, before they can be admitted to heaven, must spend some time being punished for their sins in purgatory. Purgatory is the state the church now finds itself in. Perhaps a bit of penance will do it good.

p.vallely@independent.co.uk