Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan to open first probe into child sexual abuse within its ranks

[trotsky]

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/08/national/catholic-church-open-first-probe-japan-child-sexual-abuse-within-ranks/

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan said Monday it will open an internal investigation into claims of sexual abuse among its ranks against children in the country. The probe would be the first of its kind in Japan.

The standing committee of the bishops’ conference decided Thursday at a meeting in Tokyo that it will quickly launch an “in-depth investigation” into all 16 dioceses in Japan. Five reports of sexual abuse were made when the entity conducted questionnaire surveys in 2002 and 2012 throughout its dioceses.

The Roman Catholic Church has been facing accusations of child sexual abuse and cover-ups around the world. It has also faced condemnation for not acting quickly enough. Thousands of people, possibly more, are thought to have been abused worldwide by priests over many decades.

Details of the upcoming probe in Japan, including the starting date and the specific process, will be decided later, with the bishops’ body considering seeking cooperation from external parties. The five cases of abuse reported in the past will likely be revisited, as in-depth interviews with the victims and punishment of the perpetrators were not undertaken when the questionnaire surveys were conducted.

That by now the church hasn't launched investigations EVERYWHERE it operates is upsetting, but predictable. The RCC continues to demonstrate it will only do the right thing when it has no other options.

[MineralMan]

1. The Church keeps moving slowly to look into its own wrongs.

That's not really surprising, but is unfortunate. I don't know much about the extent of the RCC in Japan. I guess I'll have to look that up.

[trotsky]

2. And the right thing to do would be to ask for an independent investigation.

But they won't do that. They'll check it internally and suppress the findings if necessary, to hide the scope and scale of the problem.

[MineralMan]

3. I'm not really sure what the Japanese authorities think about this.

Roman Catholics make up only about 0.5% of the Japanese population. There might be half a million Catholics in Japan. It's probably barely on anyone's radar there.

I don't even have any idea how the Japanese people think about child sexual abuse, really. I assume they are opposed to it, like most people, but whether the RCC there is doing it may not be much of a story there.