OPINION: A victim of sexual abuse from a priest responds to author Joy Cowley's comments about Bishop Charles Drennan.

Joy Cowley is a gifted author, but her statements in CathNews regarding Bishop Charles Drennan and sexual abuse by priests are disturbing.

Archbishop John Dew stated in CathNews that he was angry and disappointed with the actions of Drennan, involving a young woman, because "any sexual behaviour in a pastoral situation is totally inappropriate".

Drennan's actions are an abuse of authority and – regardless of whether the police understand this – genuine consent is not likely to have been possible.

 

Baylor University in the United States has done a substantial amount of research in this area and offer this definition: "Clergy sexual abuse is about the misuse of power by the perpetrator and the inability of the victim to provide consent because of the power differential." Priests are held up as God's representatives so people of faith have a huge amount of trust in them to guide them.

Cowley states: "I have seen how young women flirt with priests. Do they think that a vow of celibacy guarantees immunity?"

The answer is a resolute: Yes. A teenager should be able to trust a priest not to be lying when claiming to be celibate and to have strong morals. More importantly, she should expect a professional not to exploit her trust, vulnerability, admiration or transference issues for his own sexual gratification.

People seeking professional care should be able to exhibit any behaviours, flirtatious or otherwise, to a psychologist, counsellor, priest, teacher or doctor and know that these will not be taken advantage of.

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In its own document Te Houhanga Rongo A Path to Healing, The Catholic Church states: "Any attempt to sexualise a pastoral relationship is a betrayal of trust, an abuse of authority, and professional misconduct."

Drennan surely, therefore, knew it was abuse. As a result of its Royal Commission the abuse of adults by clergy has emerged as a prevalent problem in Australia. New South Wales has made it a criminal offence, as the law states that consent is negated when there is "the abuse of a position of authority or trust".

In many states of America, it is also a criminal offence – clergy cannot use consent as a defence if the victim was under their pastoral care. In the United Kingdom former Bishop Peter Ball was convicted of sexual assaults against adults despite his victims returning to him many times.

An independent review of the Ball case by Dame Moira Gibb in 2017, named An Abuse of Faith – he said it was God's will, found "Ball's abusive behaviour was trivialised and its consequences were set aside... There was little understanding that men might be vulnerable precisely because they were seeking spiritual fulfilment." The findings noted that "the trust accorded to clergy can bring an exceptional level of power, perhaps not apparent to others, over the lives of those seeking assistance or direction".

Tragically, at least one of Ball's victims died by suicide as a consequence of the abuse.

Cowley's statements reflect an approach that has too often been taken by the church, with disastrous consequences: to minimise what occurred, to victim blame, to quickly forgive the perpetrator and to let them back into ministry. Dew needs to condemn Cowley's public statements if the church is to regain public trust.

Would Cowley feel the same about a 50-year-old teacher or psychologist having sex with a teenager under his care? Would she say they shouldn't be judged? There have been many such cases whereby such actions have been rightly judged as disgraceful and they have been removed from their role.

But Cowley states that the poor priest is like a hungry man who cannot be judged for stealing a loaf of bread, implying the poor man is sex-deprived, so therefore, cannot be blamed for how he gets it. And yet this sort of abuse is also perpetrated by married priests in other denominations.

Australian researchers, Stephen E de Weger and Jodi Death, specialise in the sexual abuse of adults by clergy and note in their thesis that celibacy vows are somewhat flexible, with studies suggesting that well over 50 per cent of Catholic priests break them. Priests have tertiary level training that includes information about boundaries and why it is a gross abuse of power to break them. Could Drennan have not found a truly consensual partner that he had no priestly power over – has he not heard of Tinder or prostitutes?

As for Cowley's comments: "Over the past few years, when I've read about a priest charged with sexual abuse, I've known that both abuser and abused are victims." The Greek playwright Aeschylus put it another way: "Who is the slayer and who the victim? Speak!" These words are so offensive to abuse survivors that an apology or explanation is called for.

Survivors of abuse by religious leaders in any denomination may contact SNAP Aotearoa for peer support via Facebook or phone 022 3440496, and/or register with the Royal Commission into Abuse, 0800 222 727, which is looking into the abuse of children and vulnerable adults in faith-based institutions.