—Inés San Martín, “Abuse victim of Opus Dei priest wants case to be acknowledged,” Crux, July 13, 2020
See:
https://youtu.be/LYNRsFK3XQQ?si=rg8wnXDYmjrmt3KA
—TheDeepDiveProject, “Opus Dei’s Sex Abuse Crisis They’d Rather We All Forgot About It | Opus Dei Deep Dive,” YouTube video, 25:19 minutes, September 8, 2021
7:24
The specific charges leveled by MGF [the victim] against [Father Manuel] Cociña is that the priest massaged the young man’s genitals at least seven different times after the young man’s confession to him. MGF stated that…at least four other young men had reported similar episodes of abuse at the hands of the same Opus Dei priest.
7:58
MGF obtained a meeting with Opus Dei regional director in Madrid who listened to his accusations against Cociña—and this part just blows my mind—the director told MGF that he himself was reluctant to relay the charge to his superiors because he was unsure if the acts of massaging the victim’s genitals had a sexual connotation.
8:43
The director told MGF that the…revelations would hurt—yeah, no kidding—and that the young man should shut up pray for the priest and not worry—that is just completely unacceptable…and the fact that that even happened at all.
Under the Opus Dei regime of directors filing regular reports on numeraries in the prelature there is no question in this reporter’s mind that the director immediately informed Opus Dei officials in Rome of MGF’s accusations, but the matter was kept under wraps until 2019. So the victim went forward, told the correct persons what had happened to him, and the person responsible for maintaining order and making sure that things go the way they’re supposed to go within Opus Dei basically just told them to shut up and go away and that it was basically a non-issue and that they shouldn’t bring scandal onto this Opus Dei priest.
10:46
Time and time again we see this happen where a victim comes forward to the leaders of the church or religious organization saying x y and z happened to me, and the leadership basically tells them to go away and be quiet because they don’t want to expose and bring shame and blah blah blah, all this other ridiculous stuff, and then they cover it up and hide it for as long as they possibly can until it blows up in their face because the victim does the responsible thing and comes forward to civil authorities, making a formal accusation, and then the church goes [whoops] well now they’re caught between a rock and a hard place and only then do they do something about the situation, and at that point it’s a scandal, and it never would have reached that point if they just would have done the right thing from the beginning, but that seems to be completely beyond them.
13:01
Quote this is canon law—you don’t have a right to the sentence [or] right to know who said what end quote. MGF says [quote] the accused and I are not on even footing. I notify the church of the abuse and it’s the church—Opus Dei—that canonically makes the accusation to the CDF quote
14:37
The fact that no sort of real due process is followed and nobody is held accountable, it ends up looking like a wild goose chase, some sort of red herring to make the church look bad instead of an actual real problem with actual real victims involved, and this is not a new thing whatsoever.
Among other systemic deficiencies in the Roman Catholic Church, the lack of capacity or outright incapacity to deal justly and effectively with abuse—not only sexual but other forms of abuse as well—occurring within the institution arises from the following attributes of cultural clericalism:
- Absence of due process inside the institution itself
- Absence of adjudicative processes within the institution that deal fairly with all parties in the dispute—clerical reputation is given priority and importance over victim welfare.
It appears that in key instances the actions of the secular police and judicial institutions together with those of the secular press—if they are sufficiently motivated and they exercise the ethics proper to their respective professions—turn out to be necessary in order to obtain justice and fair treatment for the victims. It is only too obvious that you cannot rely on the institution—the Roman Catholic Church—to act against its own interest. Conflict of interest in cases of sexual and other forms of abuse is unmistakable, overriding, and prevalent.
Public domain photo
ReplyDeletePhoto link:
https://pxhere.com/en/photo/775634
Gonzalinho
CLERICALISM IN ROMAN CATHOLIC ADJUDICATION
ReplyDeleteRebecca of TheDeepDiveProject speaks about the clerical sexual abuse case of “Lucas” (not his real name), which is reported in this article:
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2020/07/abuse-victim-of-opus-dei-priest-wants-case-to-be-acknowledged
—Inés San Martín, “Abuse victim of Opus Dei priest wants case to be acknowledged,” Crux, July 13, 2020
See:
https://youtu.be/LYNRsFK3XQQ?si=rg8wnXDYmjrmt3KA
—TheDeepDiveProject, “Opus Dei’s Sex Abuse Crisis They’d Rather We All Forgot About It | Opus Dei Deep Dive,” YouTube video, 25:19 minutes, September 8, 2021
7:24
The specific charges leveled by MGF [the victim] against [Father Manuel] Cociña is that the priest massaged the young man’s genitals at least seven different times after the young man’s confession to him. MGF stated that…at least four other young men had reported similar episodes of abuse at the hands of the same Opus Dei priest.
7:58
MGF obtained a meeting with Opus Dei regional director in Madrid who listened to his accusations against Cociña—and this part just blows my mind—the director told MGF that he himself was reluctant to relay the charge to his superiors because he was unsure if the acts of massaging the victim’s genitals had a sexual connotation.
8:43
The director told MGF that the…revelations would hurt—yeah, no kidding—and that the young man should shut up pray for the priest and not worry—that is just completely unacceptable…and the fact that that even happened at all.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
CLERICALISM IN ROMAN CATHOLIC ADJUDICATION
DeleteContinued
9:10
Under the Opus Dei regime of directors filing regular reports on numeraries in the prelature there is no question in this reporter’s mind that the director immediately informed Opus Dei officials in Rome of MGF’s accusations, but the matter was kept under wraps until 2019. So the victim went forward, told the correct persons what had happened to him, and the person responsible for maintaining order and making sure that things go the way they’re supposed to go within Opus Dei basically just told them to shut up and go away and that it was basically a non-issue and that they shouldn’t bring scandal onto this Opus Dei priest.
10:46
Time and time again we see this happen where a victim comes forward to the leaders of the church or religious organization saying x y and z happened to me, and the leadership basically tells them to go away and be quiet because they don’t want to expose and bring shame and blah blah blah, all this other ridiculous stuff, and then they cover it up and hide it for as long as they possibly can until it blows up in their face because the victim does the responsible thing and comes forward to civil authorities, making a formal accusation, and then the church goes [whoops] well now they’re caught between a rock and a hard place and only then do they do something about the situation, and at that point it’s a scandal, and it never would have reached that point if they just would have done the right thing from the beginning, but that seems to be completely beyond them.
13:01
Quote this is canon law—you don’t have a right to the sentence [or] right to know who said what end quote. MGF says [quote] the accused and I are not on even footing. I notify the church of the abuse and it’s the church—Opus Dei—that canonically makes the accusation to the CDF quote
14:37
The fact that no sort of real due process is followed and nobody is held accountable, it ends up looking like a wild goose chase, some sort of red herring to make the church look bad instead of an actual real problem with actual real victims involved, and this is not a new thing whatsoever.
To be continued 2
Gonzalinho
CLERICALISM IN ROMAN CATHOLIC ADJUDICATION
DeleteContinued 2
Comments
Among other systemic deficiencies in the Roman Catholic Church, the lack of capacity or outright incapacity to deal justly and effectively with abuse—not only sexual but other forms of abuse as well—occurring within the institution arises from the following attributes of cultural clericalism:
- Absence of due process inside the institution itself
- Absence of adjudicative processes within the institution that deal fairly with all parties in the dispute—clerical reputation is given priority and importance over victim welfare.
It appears that in key instances the actions of the secular police and judicial institutions together with those of the secular press—if they are sufficiently motivated and they exercise the ethics proper to their respective professions—turn out to be necessary in order to obtain justice and fair treatment for the victims. It is only too obvious that you cannot rely on the institution—the Roman Catholic Church—to act against its own interest. Conflict of interest in cases of sexual and other forms of abuse is unmistakable, overriding, and prevalent.
Gonzalinho