The monks of Downside have announced their intention to leave Downside Abbey and find a new home. In some ways it is not a great surprise. There are only 12 monks left, the governance of Downside School was made independent last year and they are presumably rattling around in premises designed for several times as many people.
But we need also to consider the backdrop of the abuses so thoroughly documented by IICSA. The inquiry found that over decades there had been a refusal to cooperate with the statutory authorities over child sex abuse perpetrated by monks. Given that old attitudes die hard, removing the monks from the vicinity of the school is probably best all round, both for the safety of the pupils and to move the monks out of the reach of temptation.
There has been a little comment on Twitter expressing regret at the monks’ departure. Few of these have faced squarely the background of abuse. Where it has been referred to it has been described as a “period of evil” which has brought down the Abbey. I’m profoundly sceptical about that interpretation. Admittedly we only know about abuse victims from the last few decades. Any older victims are now dead and unable to tell their story. But there’s no reason to think the abuse only happened within living memory.
Some conservative Catholics put the blame on Vatican II and the changes that followed. But I know of Benedictine abuse which preceded Vatican II.
One of the great characteristics of the Catholic Church and Catholic faith is its attachment to continuity and stability. It deals in what it regards as unchanging eternal truths. So why would we not believe that the church’s attitude (and that of the Downside monks) towards covering up abuse has been similarly stable over a long period? Without access to historical records that I’m pretty sure have long since been destroyed there is no means of ever of proving it.
But if it is true that abuse and cover up has been going on since the abbey and school were established in Somerset in 1814, then the monks’ departure from next door to the school is a matter for celebration, not sorrow.
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ReplyDeleteI hear that Downside want to give up all their parishes as well. If so, good luck to them in their quest to abandon the evils of clericalism and so become genuine monks. However, expect loud screams from some of their parishioners because certain of their parishes are zombies and the bishops concerned will simply refuse to take them on even if they had the priests to put in them. I also hear that the EBC curia thinks that all EBC parishes should be given up. That would lead to an exodus of those who never had any intention of being monks, but who only joined the congregation in order to be ordained without having to go through the seminary system.
ReplyDeleteVatican II has a lot to answer for. It is one of the reasons I lapsed but not the main one. I still have a faith but it is on my terms.
ReplyDeleteGreat damning statement from the secretary of the IECSA relating to the Roman Catholic Church came out yesterday 10/11/20.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know where Soper is banged up? Where is Pearce? Where is Shipperlee? I lived until recently next to the abbey and whilst i think the RC church is the Devils church i am a Christian and sometimes went to the abbey to sit. One day there was a mass going on and i went up and Shippelee was giving out the wine and i looked him in the eyes and my blood froze. Inever knew why at the time. I knew nothing about the history of the place having just moved to the area but i was raped by a Roman Catholic teacher repeatedly as 13 year old back in the 60's and it twisted my mind and i spent my life hyper vigilant for predators and what i saw in shippelees eyes rang my alarm bells.
I'm sorry to hear about your experiences.
DeleteI've no reason to believe that Shipperlee committed any abuses himself. However he was severely criticised by IICSA for failing to prevent Pearce from abusing and for not reporting other allegations to the authorities.
Pearce was released some years ago and lives away from the abbey. In evidence to the inquiry Shipperlee admitted that the abbey pays Pearce's rent out of charitable funds. Soper is still in prison and will remain so for many years yet. I don't know which one and have not asked.
I still can't believe that no one seems to have noticed that the one unturned stone in the IICSA investigation / Benedictine's is also the school / abbey that the current AP (Christopher Jamison) was a leader in for decades. Jamison is now "listening to survivors" but is not allowing survivors to ask questions about his own past.
ReplyDeleteIt has been noticed, and was pointedly referred to by lawyers for survivors at the end of the Ealing hearing last year, that had Worth been investigated instead of Ealing, we might well have heard of Jamison's resignation and Shipperlee's subsequent elevation to Abbot President.
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