Professor says European culture tolerated clergy abuse

A culture tolerant of improper behaviour and clerical abuse of power helped allow alleged crimes by priests to continue for years, Vilnius University professor and Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science academician Paulius Subačius told LRT’s television programme Dienos tema on Tuesday.

The names of priests accused of sexual offences were made public on Tuesday. One case involves 11 possible victims aged between 12 and 18, while the alleged crimes may have continued for 23 years. One priest is charged with 34 offences, including abusing children and involving minors in drinking. Another faces charges related to possessing pornographic material. The alleged offences took place in six different locations in Lithuania.

Asked how such conduct could have continued for so long, Toma Bružaitė, a representative of the Catholic initiative Svarbus reikalas, said that nobody had reported it or lodged complaints, or that complaints had been ignored.

“In other words, the environment enabled these crimes to be committed for so long in one way or another,” Bružaitė said.

Subačius said Lithuania and the Catholic Church in the country were not exceptions based on information from investigations carried out in Portugal, France, Ireland, Austria and Poland.

“For decades, this activity has continued. Some members of the clergy were certainly involved in it throughout their lives,” he said.

Subačius said the problem was linked not only to the environment but also to a culture that tolerated such behaviour.

“Lithuania’s culture is not specific. In various Western and Eastern European countries, this culture was tolerant of improper behaviour and the abuse of power by clergy until our time,” he said. “It ignored it and believed that everything was fine, or that if something was slightly wrong, it would somehow be dealt with and pass.”

Bružaitė said responsibility lay with the entire community, including Church leaders and laypeople. She called for the issue to be addressed openly so that future offences could be prevented, victims could receive justice and the harm they suffered could be addressed.

“We must encourage, oblige and urge one another to speak about it and not hide,” she said, adding that victims should be protected and helped to overcome difficulties resulting from the harm they experienced.