The Archbishop’s silent letter

(Update on May 6, 2022: The communications office of the Archbishop has responded to media queries. I’ve written a follow-up to this blogpost here.)

A prominent member of a Catholic order in Singapore was sentenced to 5 years jail today (May 5, 2022) for his sexual abuse of two teenage boys more than a decade ago.

On the same day, the Archbishop of the Catholic Church in Singapore, Most Rev. William Goh, apologised publicly in his letter, “A Pastoral Letter on Seeking God’s Merciful Healing And Vigilance in Protecting Our Young”.

It was a curious letter, acknowledging the questions raised by people but nary an attempt to answer them. He said: “Some of us are confused as to what actually took place and how this could have happened.”

Good, but where are the answers? No information was offered.

Even more curious is a glaring omission: When did the church find out about the abuse and what did it do in response?

The letter has a generic paragraph about a Professional Standards Office (PSO) the Church set up in 2011, to protect the “vulnerable and regularly reviews its protocols to provide a safe environment”. Was PSO set up in response to the case? We don’t know. The letter doesn’t say so.

The letter, to me, is remarkable for its silence on the Church’s response to the abuse coming to light.

What we do know

News reports indicate the sexual abuse happened sometime between 2005 and 2007. Two victims are known. TODAY Online reported that sometime in 2009, one of the victims confided “in the sector leader of the Catholic order in Singapore who counselled him and offered to escalate the matter to the police. The victim, however, declined to do so.

“In the meantime, the man admitted his wrongdoing to his religious superior when asked about the victim’s complaints, and was immediately suspended from school activities and prohibited from entering the school premises.”

The culprit later went overseas for a six month therapy programme. We don’t know when, whether he admitted himself to therapy, or was sent by the Church.

Somehow – again we don’t know – the school board found out about the abuse over a decade later in late 2020. To its credit, the board acted swiftly and decisively, launching an internal investigation. Subsequently, the Chairman made a police report in May 2021. The culprit would have gone unpunished if not for the honesty of the school board.

Bear in mind, what we do know, is purely a result of mainstream media reporting – not the Archbishop’s letter.

Too many unanswered questions

For a whole decade and more, the sexual abuser’s crimes were known to at least two adults within the Catholic order, one of whom was the culprit’s superior.

Given the high profile of the culprit, how senior in the Church hierarchy was this religious superior to whom he admitted his crimes? What was done in the decade since the admission, besides the barest minimum of banning the culprit from school activities?

Did the Church launch an internal investigation? Try to find out if there were more victims? Were there attempts to notify the school(s?) where the culprit had access to students? If not, why not?

Evidence of sexual abuses are hard to nail down but here, the culprit admitted his crimes to the Church. Why did it not make a police report? Its failure to do so, in effect, protected a sex abuser of minors from the law!

So many questions, all of which can be addressed without violating the gag order by the courts to protect the two victims. Yet not a peep.

Apologies ring hollow without accountability.

A matter of public interest

Some would argue that it’s an internal matter for the Catholic Church. I disagree. It’s a matter of public interest.

According to The Straits Times, the culprit taught one of the students “religious and moral education in lower secondary school”. The other victim helped the culprit with various tasks in school. Due to the gag order, the school has not been identified.

But it’s publicly known that there are many public schools affiliated to the Catholic Church, accepting students of all backgrounds. The culprit is a high-profile figure in his 60s. It’s unclear how long he’s been a member of the Catholic order but it is very much possible he  had access to students in more than one public school over his career.

Public schools are public institutions. There must be public accountability.

A letter filled with silence just will not do.

Read the follow-up blogpost: The Archdiocese: from silence to... evasion?

If you’re a survivor of sexual assault and would like support, please reach out to the Sexual Assault Care Centre at 6779 0282. Click here for details.