The abuse of power...

Although much is being made of the fact that there appears, allegedly at least, to have been a history of sexual abuse at one of Malta's homes run by those who are meant to serve us and God, we should not be drawn into any hysterical over-reactions.

I am not surprised the abuse was allegedly carried out by priests on young boys. Abuse is rampant whenever people have too much control, too much power over others. This is true on the factory floor, in an office or in any other establishment.

It seems that the inability to handle power well is a hallmark of human nature and, surprise surprise, priests are no better than the rest of the population.

Who knows the exact incidence of paedophilia in any nation? Most of it is unreported so we have little way of being sure which professions are the worst perpetrators but some trends are clear. Although fathers abuse their children, stepfathers do so even more frequently. Although many 'real' parents abuse their children, the rate of abuse among those who are fostered or adopted is often even higher.

And although you can't pinpoint any profession, it appears paedophiles are attracted to professions like teaching or residential social work and even to the priesthood, most obviously because that is where they are going to come into contact with those they have the sickest desires for.

This is not in any way to implicate any one profession, or any kind of parent. The vast majority of teachers, social workers, priests or nuns, stepmums and stepdads, mums and dads do not abuse those in their care. But some do, and the abuse ranges from the psychological to the physical to the sexual with all sorts of weird and terrible combinations in between.

The only real lesson to learn from all this is that you cannot blindly trust anyone because they are your child's priest or teacher or perhaps even residential social worker.

Very few of us have not experienced or heard of similar stories when growing up. I have clear memories of my brother talking about the definite physical bullying at his Church school and the innuendoes about the physical inclinations of certain churchmen.

Sadly, I believe the vow of celibacy as well as the total no to women priests in the Catholic Church makes these things even worse. It is very sad that where women dominate and excel in all the caring professions, they are somehow not deemed fit to be priests, where caring must be a central quality.

Of course there is no automatic link between homosexuals and paedophiles at all, but men and women should be able to be priests and serve God and us. Celibacy does not equal goodness.

Celibate the alleged abusers at St Joseph's certainly were not. Not all of them certainly, but it seems there was not just one bad egg. And there's the worry. Why such a high incidence of abusers in one institution?

Worrying too is what will happen to these abusers. There was the case of someone found by Interpol, no less, to be somehow dealing with child pornography and he got off scot free because of some mental illness! Really, mental illness? How surprising. And there I was thinking all child abusers were sane! Of course he's mentally ill if he is a paedophile, but does that mean he gets off scot free?

A couple of years ago there were other allegations of abuse by churchmen and nothing happened, even though a particular professional worked relentlessly to ensure they were brought to justice.

This whole issue of their names being protected has attracted a lot of public ire. Do we have a right to know who the child abusers are, and not just the priests? Of course, once the names of these priests have been made public, so should the names of all the abusers, but they often are not.

It's so difficult. You wouldn't want to buy a house next door to a paedophile, would you, but we have no way of knowing. Certainly though, blind trust is dead in Malta today.

Many priests must now be worried about the lack of trust some parents may show in them, even if their intentions are totally honourable and the harm done irrepar-able. By that I mean the harm done to the victims.

The victims want justice and so do we all. In this case, like in all the others, justice must not only be done but seen to be done. The Church should feel no obligation to protect, so the alleged abusers should go through our normal criminal justice system.

Abuse of power is rampant because indiscipline reigns supreme. When the highest members of the judiciary or ordinary members of the Church as well as some of those in public office abuse their power, you can be sure the abuse of power is rampant everywhere.

It's there when you see the mum telling her son to be careful or she'll kill him! It's there when you witness the teachers who bully and put down pupils.

At its worst it's paedophilia... abuse of power gone mad... and very little beyond tough sentencing that we can do to prevent it.

Except of course to have checks and balances everywhere, and never trust anyone too much, however close to you, whichever God they represent You just never can tell...