Report confirms sexual, physical abuse by Presbyterian missionaries to Africa
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, September 30, 2002
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Presbyterian missionaries in Africa physically and sexually abused “a significant number of missionary children in the Congo” between 1945 and 1978, according to a report to the General Assembly Council by the council’s chair, Barbara Renton.
She alerted the council to a forthcoming 171-page report that will give details about the incidents – but not names – and a list of recommendations that the General Assembly Council will consider.
“When you receive the report, you will read the committee’s inescapable conclusion that a significant number of missionary children in the Congo were victims of physical and sexual abuse,” Renton said. “You will also find that if our previous administrators and field personnel acted more aggressively and decisively on information they had, further abuse might have been averted.”
Renton, retired executive presbyter in the Presbytery of Susquehanna (N.Y.), read a carefully worded statement to the council that underscored the seriousness of what occurred in the Congo.
Only one missionary has been named publicly in the abuse cases – the Rev. William Pruitt, who died in 1998. While he was on the staff of Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Pruitt was the target of a number of allegations that were filed in Grace Presbytery, but his death brought that investigative process to a halt. He maintained his innocence until he died.
According to one source, most – if not all – of the other Presbyterian missionaries accused of abusing children also are dead.
Renton told the council that the allegations of missionaries abusing children in the Congo were investigated by an Independent Committee of Inquiry, which has completed its work. The committee wrote the 171-page report, as well as a 30-page “need to know” supplement that will not be disclosed publicly.
She said the report would be mailed to members of the General Assembly Council. The Layman Online requested a copy of the report and was informed that it will receive one as well.
She said the executive committee of the General Assembly Council will send a letter “to those survivors identified by the Independent Committee voicing our acknowledgement [of] and apology for the abuses that occurred. We also extend our commitment for continuing care and the sponsorship of a retreat, as called for by the report.”
The executive committee has appointed a work group to receive the 30 recommendations of committee of inquiry. The work group will make recommendations to the General Assembly Council.
“It will take us some time to consider the 30 recommendations and other issues which may come to light, but we must act to preserve the integrity of the church,” Renton said.
She stressed the need to maintain confidentiality. “The confidentiality provisions surrounding the work of the Independent Committee of Inquiry were the most sacred trusts they received from the survivors. The work could not have been completed had confidentiality not been granted.”