PRESSURE is mounting on Julia Gillard to launch a Royal Commission into child sex abuse within the Catholic Church following public demands from key independents, and the Greens.

The calls, from Greens leader Christine Milne, Independents Tony Windsor, Nick Xenophon and Craig Thompson, come amid calls from the Prime Minister's own backbench to support a Royal Commission.

There are already state based commissions into sex abuse within the clergy currently underway in New South Wales and Victoria.

A Royal Commission would give investigators national and expansive powers to expose any alleged cover ups.

A victims group will today present to the Victorian government inquiry a list of 18 convicted pedophile priests who were moved from parish to parish or further away, where they continued offending.

http://www.news.com.au/national/pressure-mounts-for-royal-commission-into-sex-abuse-within-the-catholic-church/story-fndo4eg9-1226514877569

If one is aware of this deplorable situation, Most groups of victims and their suporters want proper STATE investigations first... What Bazza O'Feral has done is delay this process by investigating the police in its handling of the church handling of the abuse cases... Barely a year in the job, Bazza O'Feral has become the most crooked premier in NSW since Askin and Bazza may beat it to him in the cover-up stakes with his Packer casino on the seashore... 

And now we can see that the Merde-och press is pushing Julia Gillard's nose into the mess... as if she "had something to do" with it by not doing anything about it... and tainting her with it...

In fact the STATES need to collect the evidence BEFORE any Royal Commission can take place. What Bazza is doing is investigating the police to stop the evidence being exposed by the police.... Corrupt to the hilt. Bazza and the Murdoch media.

All the pollies should know they are being manipulated by the media to "react" and that proper investigation will be scuttled by being too swift and expedient as Bazza shuffles the deck chairs...

 

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is coming under growing pressure to set up a national royal commission into allegations of child abuse within the Catholic Church.

The campaign has been fuelled by last week's explosive allegations by a senior New South Wales police investigator, who said the church had been involved in covering up evidence involving paedophile priests.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has set up an inquiry to investigate the claims, but federal independent MP Tony Windsor has described that response as "pathetic" and is demanding the Prime Minister take action.

"To have a regionally-based Hunter Valley inquiry almost makes a mockery of the people that have suffered under these abuses, and it needs to be national," Mr Windsor told AM.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-12/windsor-steps-up-pressure-for-sex-abuse-inquiry/4366468?WT.svl=news0

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"Pressure pressure... Explosive allegations"... The media is using the words as if Julia is guilty for having done nothing so far... As I have said before, the STATES have first to get their police officers to collect evidence and testimonies... Bazza O'Feral has put a stop to that... The premier should be investigated for corruption of justice...

 

from politicoz ….

The calls for a royal commission into child sexual abuse in the Catholic church will keep building, and for good reason.

Horrific stories have emerged in the past fortnight, mostly care of the parliamentary enquiry in Victoria and the public statements by independent-minded NSW policeman Peter Fox. We've learnt of systematic abuse over decades, priests being shifted from diocese to diocese to avoid scrutiny (facilitating further abuse), police investigations hindered, and alleged cover-ups that remain un-investigated.

In Victoria alone, the Catholic church has been aware of hundreds (but more likely thousands) of sexual abuse claims. Yet it didn't report them to police, preferring its own 'internal mechanisms', which were woefully inadequate and seemingly more concerned with protecting its own reputation and financial interests.

The Catholic church can't be sued for the crimes of its clergy because there is no legal entity deemed responsible, even though it has spent millions defending the criminal cases of known and convicted paedophiles. Victims must rely on the 'good will' of the church for reparations.

Senior church leaders continue to characterise the calls for a federal enquiry as a 'disproportionate attack' on the church. And this is why a wide-ranging investigation is nothing less than the victims - and the church itself - deserve.

Julia Gillard faces growing calls for a royal commission into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church after Labor backbenchers joined the Greens and independents in demanding a national inquiry. The Greens demanded a royal commission after independent MP Tony Windsor said he would write to the Prime Minister to discuss an inquiry.

More than 70 per cent of the Brothers from the St John of God order are suspected child abusers and the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney should immediately shut it down, says a psychologist who was employed by the order to meet scores of victims.

Also: Pell Shuns Commission, Saying Apology Was Enough – Rick Morton and Sarah Martin (The Australian)

 

UPDATE: THE "hero" spearheading the push for a royal commission into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has welcomed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's support as a "magnificent gesture".

"My God, (Cardinal) George Pell's best mate!" Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox said when told by news.com.au of Mr Abbott's support.
 
"Whether I'm an Abbott fan or not ... I really wasn't counting on his support but now that he's backing the royal commission that will probably change my mind about him a hell of a lot."

http://www.news.com.au/national/child-abuse-inquiry-needed-sooner-rather-than-later/story-fncynjr2-1226515004476

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You don't have to change you view about Abbott, sir... but let me say this: After his debacles on quite a few issues, Tony has to try and buy some redemption with the public as if "he was the one who enforced a royal commission"... He would know that Bazza O'Feral will try to impede the investigation and All should have condemned O"Feral...

 

SOME priests think pedophilia does not "break celibacy" and that sins can be confessed away, one of the nation's top child protection experts says.
Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs, who has just published a seminal text on child protection, says sexual abuse by a priest is “the most damaging of all" for children and that the Catholic Church is guilty of forgiving priests instead of punishing them.
Her comments come after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a sweeping federal royal commission into institutional child sex abuse, which was sparked by revelations of abuse within the Catholic Church.
Asked whether Catholic celibacy was a possible contributor to child sex abuse, Prof Briggs told news.com.au celibacy was not the problem “for men who are sexually attracted to children" anyway.
“There has been an acceptance over the years that having sex with a boy is not breaking celibacy," she said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/news/child-sex-abuse-not-the-biggest-sin-and-confession-gives-a-clean-slate-pedophile-priests-believe/story-e6frfkor-1226515833723#ixzz2C53FQ9XG

 

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Father Frank Brennan is a Jesuit priest and Professor of Law at the Australian Catholic University in Canberra.

He drove from the south coast of New South Wales to join us in our Sydney studio just a short time ago.

Father Brennan, thanks so much for coming in tonight.

FRANK BRENNAN, JESUIT PRIEST AND LAWYER: Good to be with you.

EMMA ALBERICI: Now you were opposed to a royal commission per se. What are your reservations?

FRANK BRENNAN: I was opposed to a national royal commission because I thought there were a number of state inquiries underway that could be useful. And my concern about a national commission - I would hope for the sake of victims nationwide that it will bear fruit.

My worry has been that a national royal commission, for example the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which was restricted to 99 deaths over just a 10-year period, that took 3.5 years. So I think a commission of the breadth that the Prime Minister has announced, if it was to be anything more than broad brush, but if it were to have the particularity that we were looking for with state inquiries, I think it will take at least five years.

EMMA ALBERICI: So would it have been better to have been kept to just the Catholic Church?

FRANK BRENNAN: I don't know whether just to the Catholic Church or whether within the jurisdictions that were conducting these things. Let's remember within the federation that we have that most of the agencies which deal with children are under state jurisdiction. And at the moment in the three most populous state - Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria - there are inquiries presently running and they are running as a result of royal commissions that have been previously held.

So my concern is simply that at a national level a royal commission asking the feds to come and investigate the states, particularly where it's a federal Labor Government on the ropes in the lead-up to a federal election with Liberal state governments, I think there are all sorts of complications there and I would hope for the sick of the victims that things do not get too politically messy.

EMMA ALBERICI: The Prime Minister in making her announcement today said the royal commission would look at institutional responses to abuse. From what you've seen thus far, has the Church always in your view put the welfare of children first?

FRANK BRENNAN: No, it has not. And I think particularly prior to 1997 there's been abundant evidence that the Catholic Church, which is the church I know best, the interests of children were not put first and often it was the interests of the Church as an institution or of particular clerics who were spared and children were sacrificed.

EMMA ALBERICI: And is it still policy to move a priest to another diocese if he is accused of abuse or convicted and then released?

FRANK BRENNAN: As I understand since 1997 with the protocols that have been put in place, definitely not. If there have been breaches of that, then it's not only a breach of the law, it's a breach of the Church's own protocols.

EMMA ALBERICI: So is there a structure in place to determine that that definitely won't happen?

FRANK BRENNAN: There is. After the Wood Royal Commission in NSW we had a protocol set up nationally for the Catholic Church, as for other equivalent churches. It's been accepted since 1997 that every church has to have a protocol in place, as should any organisation that's dealing with children.

Definitely there have been problems that - Catholic protocol I know has been revised twice with independent legal advice, but there are still criticisms of it from victims, their families and their loved ones. There's still work to be done. The question is: how that's best to be improved.

EMMA ALBERICI: Is it time to rethink the vow of celibacy in the Catholic Church?

FRANK BRENNAN: Well, that's another debate, but I definitely think that there would be some individuals in the Catholic Church with a vow of celibacy as Catholic priests who, to put it very bluntly, if they were married, they probably would be abusing their own children. But definitely I think there is a case for reviewing that. But at the moment in Rome there's no appetite for it at all, as we know.

EMMA ALBERICI: Is there an appetite here in Australia, do you think?

FRANK BRENNAN: Of course there is, if you speak to diocese and priests generally, but at the moment, anyone who's made a bishop will be of the view that basically it shouldn't be changed. And so what we're dealing with is a social institution which is in something of a time warp on those sorts of questions.

EMMA ALBERICI: Why do you think the Catholic Church all over the world is finding it so hard to recruit priests?

FRANK BRENNAN: It's not all over the world, but definitely in Western countries where there's a strong notion of individual freedom and of liberty, then definitely the question has been: why would you live a life of this sort? And I think in a country like Australia at the moment, with abuse and that sort of thing, the question for a young person would be: why would you bother?

EMMA ALBERICI: You've said before that there is a disproportionately high number of child abusers among the Catholic clergy. Why do you think that is?

FRANK BRENNAN: That I don't know. I was referring to the evidence that was given before the Victorian inquiry by Professor Patrick Parkinson. Now the thing about Parkinson is he is an independent lawyer who's done a lot of work both for the Catholic Church and for the Anglican Church and he drew a comparison of the figures between the Catholics and the Anglicans.

Now that's an area where I think a lot more work is needed to be able to explain that. And at the moment, even Catholics, those of us of goodwill, we don't have an explanation for that. And I think that's where work is needed, and that's why in the past I've said the Victorian inquiry, underresourced as it is, has available to it the retired Justice Frank Vincent, who I think is one of the most outstanding retired criminal law judges in the country.

And so, I think to be able to draw on the resources of people like him as they forensically investigate those questions is critical. My worry now with a national royal commission which isn't just looking at the Catholic Church, but looking at agencies right across the board, I think it's going to be another five years before we get those sorts of forensic answers, which I was hoping we might get within some months.

EMMA ALBERICI: Now former priest Kevin Lee joined us here on the program on Friday, and he said, and I quote to you, that in the course of his life as a priest, "I became aware," he says, "that some of the other priests were actually paedophiles and were not necessarily becoming priests because they wanted to help people but because they were paedophiles who wanted the opportunity." What's your response to that?

FRANK BRENNAN: Well my own personal experience is quite different and I say, "Thank God for that." But if there is evidence of that sort of thing, then I think it's highly regrettable. Definitely the figures we've heard in Victoria indicating that there seems to be a high percentage compared with the Anglicans of those coming through the seminary there who have been offenders, then I think it's very troubling for all of us.

I mean, let's keep the focus on the victims and their families, but this is also highly troubling and very deeply shaming for those of us who pride ourselves on being loyal members of the Catholic Church.

EMMA ALBERICI: Is there something wrong with the structure of the Catholic Church in so far as there is no sort of umbrella hierarchical structure here in Australia, it is so state and diocese-based so it's very hard for you to know perhaps if a priest's been moved from interstate or indeed from overseas, what his particular past has been?

FRANK BRENNAN: I think there are now protocols in place that deal with that. If I may say, I think the real problem with the Catholic Church is the sort of unaccountable clericalism.

I was preaching in my parish in Canberra on Sunday and I told them the story: I'd been in Rome two years ago. I attended a meeting. I went across with two of my brother Jesuits from the United States. I attended a splendid concert that the Vatican put on and there was Pope Benedict and as the symphony played, an American priest turned to me and said, "That man beside the Pope, that's Cardinal Law." He said, "If he was back home, he'd been in jail."

I was very ashamed at that moment and I thought there is a structural problem, but it's not in terms as you've discussed. I think it's more the sort of unaccountable clericalism of a male celibate hierarchy and I think there are fundamental challenges for the Church in the 21st Century.

EMMA ALBERICI: He'd been in jail for what?

FRANK BRENNAN: Well, for things to do with failure to deal adequately with priests who'd been proven to be engaged in child abuse.

EMMA ALBERICI: So the accountability or the lack of accountability goes that high up within the Church?

FRANK BRENNAN: Sadly it does.

EMMA ALBERICI: So do you have faith in the ability of your Church to deal with these matters in such a way that protects children?

FRANK BRENNAN: I think the Church is a very broken institution, but one of the great things in living in a country like Australia is that we robustly pride ourselves on the rule of law and we're a pluralist democratic society where the Church is not exempt from things on the basis of some spurious pleading of freedom of religion.

And so what's essential - and I think this is accepted in good faith. I mean, the statement by our Australian Catholic Bishops today indicates they're accepting of a royal commission. They'll do anything they can to cooperate.

Now, the cynics about the Church will say, "Well of course they'd say that now, wouldn't they?" But I think part of the reality of living in a pluralist democratic society is the people you meet in church every Sunday, they're members of the church, but they're also citizens of a robust pluralist democracy which prides itself on the protection of the vulnerable, including the most vulnerable children.

But what's going to be shown from this royal commission isn't only churches, it's the nation as a whole and there are going to be very political questions as to what's ruled in and what's ruled out with a national commission of this inquiry.

EMMA ALBERICI: We look forward to speaking to you again as the inquiry takes shape. Thanks so much for coming in.

FRANK BRENNAN: Thank you. Good to be with you.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-12/interview-with-father-frank-brennan-jesuit-priest/4368072?WT.svl=news4

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I already have mentioned Frank Brennan in a couple ofi stories:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/10120....

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/9910

 

 

 

Mr Abbott, a practising Catholic, defended the cardinal.

''There have been over the years some shattering revelations about a number of highly respected institutions including, of course, my own church,'' Mr Abbott said. ''I know that the current leadership of the church is determined to get to the bottom of this.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/pell-defends-confessional-silence-over-sins-of-fathers-20121113-29aii.html#ixzz2C8UsavXE

 

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Meanwhile in the merde-och press, It's all Abbott-this, Abbott-that, the savior in regard to the royal commission... Julia only gets a mention for allegedly having received $5000 from for ex-crook boyfriend into her bank account... Yes, the merde-och outift has to restore some guilt, sorry some guild to the tarnish in the Abbott crest...

I THOUGHT Leigh Sales was wrong to ask, repeatedly on Monday, Brendan O’Connor why not probe, exclusively, the Catholic Church; but Frank Brennan on Lateline three hours later convinced me she was probably right.

For ‘institutional harm to children’ covers what happened in Woomera, Villawood and Nauru; in the Boy Scouts for a century; in the institutions exposed by the Stolen Children enquiry; in the Barnado Homes and the boys’ hostels and ‘reformatories’; in the football teams, athletic clubs, dance classes and church choirs. It logically spreads to the affianced children of some Islamic fundamentalists; of the Amish, the Scientologists, the breakaway Mormons, the Children of God and some Afghan, Aboriginal and Pitcairn Island communities. It logically spreads to every sect or cult that threatens children with hellfire, including most Christian religions. It has to.

It covers, literally, a multitude of sins. When you consider the thirty years the Lindy Chamberlain case too to exculpate a mother and convict a dingo – and failed to name the long-dead wild dog’s human accomplice – ten thousand cases of alleged, and denied, and hotly defended abuse of children might take, hereafter, quite a while.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/bob-ellis-on-the-child-abuse-royal-commission/

JOE HOCKEY was right when he talked about the “Age Of Entitlement” being over — only I think his definition of entitlement differs from mine ever so slightly. I believe Joe was referring to those at the bottom of the food chain, the pensioners, the disabled, basically those in need of a helping hand. I, on the other hand, am referring to those at the top of the food chain, who think us mere mortals are here for their exploitation and amusement.

These last months have seen the start of a movement towards a greater balance and I hope it’s a trend that gains momentum.

Firstly, I am proud to have a Prime Minister that has the guts to announce a Royal Commission into paedophile activity within institutions, which was brought on by revelations that have appeared yet again about the Catholic Church. These people need to be shown that they are not above the law. A confession and a move to a neighbouring community does not excuse someone for sexually assaulting children — and anybody who thinks it does is just as bad as the paedophile in my eyes.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/the-end-of-the-age-of-exploitation/

A leading Australian priest who sexually preyed on a disabled and vulnerable woman for 14 years has been allowed to return to preaching and running community groups at one of the nation's busiest churches.

The recent decision by the Catholic Church to allow Father Tom Knowles to return to his full duties at St Francis' Church in Melbourne's CBD after around 16 months of ''administrative leave'' has outraged his victim and victims' groups.

Father Knowles' reinstatement comes after the church apologised to Jennifer Herrick, paid her $100,000 in compensation and acknowledged ''the harm that can be caused to vulnerable people in such a case''.

Ms Herrick's story highlights a rarely exposed facet of church abuse: vulnerable adult parishioners targeted by their priest for a sexual relationship. Psychologists say such relationships may be compared to a doctor who has sex with a vulnerable patient, and Australian Catholic University professor of theology Neil Ormerod believes there may be hundreds of similar cases yet to emerge.

Ms Herrick was a shy 19-year-old from NSW, who suffered from bilateral congenital hip dysplasia - which caused her to walk with an highly abnormal gait - when her family's priest, Tom Knowles, cultivated a relationship with her. Ms Herrick's later psychological reports say she was being groomed.

When Ms Herrick turned 22, Father Knowles, who was then 30, unexpectedly initiated intercourse with her, an act she describes as unpleasant and painful but one she felt powerless to stop due to his position. It was the first time Ms Herrick had ever had sex.

For the next 14 years, Father Knowles - who as a Catholic priest is meant to be celibate - maintained a secret sexual relationship with Ms Herrick.

''I now understand that my very severe vulnerability allowed him to exploit me by abusing his priestly powerful position for nearly two decades for his sexual needs,'' she said.

In 2011, after she lodged a formal complaint, a confidential church investigation found his conduct to be highly inappropriate. Ms Herrick allowed Father Knowles to have sex with her during the 14-year period and told no one about it. She says the sex was often hurried, aggressive and sometimes painful. She withdrew from friends and family and grew increasingly anxious, ultimately having a breakdown and losing her career as a high school teacher.

''You feel you can't say anything to anybody because he was a priest. When a young, disabled woman is caught up with a priest, you are trapped,'' she said. ''I was denied an opportunity to develop normally as a young adult. I could never test out other relationships or have a family. It was a personal and pastoral betrayal.''

In a report, Ms Herrick's psychologist, Ana Grant, said the priest's conduct had caused Ms Herrick serious post-traumatic stress disorder and fell ''within the criteria for clergy perpetrated sexual abuse''. On September 27, 2011, Father Knowles' boss, Father Graeme Duro, wrote to Ms Herrick acknowledging she had ''endured a great deal of emotional and psychological pain and suffering and that Fr Knowles' inappropriate conduct was to your detriment''.

But in December 2012, a senior NSW church official, Michael Salmon, advised Ms Herrick's lawyer in writing that Father Knowles had ''committed to a prolonged, regular and very intensive and personally confronting program of therapy'' and he would ''return to full community life, and to public ministry''.

Ms Herrick described the decision as ''extremely distressing''.

Fairfax Media photographed Father Knowles preaching to parishioners last week at St Francis', which hosts 10,000 parishioners a week. In his career, Father Knowles has been appointed as the head of an order and held other senior roles in NSW and Victoria.

Ms Herrick's lawyer is Peter Karp, who has acted for many clergy sexual abuse victims. ''Vulnerable people in Jennifer's position give their trust to a priest on the understanding that this trust will be returned,'' he said. ''In this instance, the victim is so aggrieved, you would think that justice would demand that he be stood down permanently.''

Father Duro said in a statement this week that: ''We express our deep regret at the hurt suffered by the complainant and the harm Fr Knowles' behaviour has caused his fellow religious and the church; we believe everything … to alleviate the complainant's suffering and to address Fr Knowles' responsibility for his actions has been done and it is appropriate for him to return to public ministry.''

Ms Herrick's case falls outside of the royal commission on child sex abuse because she was 22 when the sexual relationship began.

"The adult victims [of clergy abuse] are voiceless victims," Mr Karp said.

Professor Ormerod, who has supported Ms Herrick, said that in reinstating Father Knowles, the church sent a "signal to the victim that her situation wasn't serious" when in fact the abuse of trust by the priest had been extensive.

He said he suspected the number of adults abused or in inappropriate relationships with their priests might be greater than the child abuse scandal.

Victims' advocate Chris McIsaac, of Broken Rights, said: ''A psychiatrist who targeted a patient sexually could face deregistration, so why not a clergyman?''

Priest In Pulpit After Big Payout

 

THE 29TH OF MAY 2013 should go down in history as one of NSW’s blackest days.

On that day the Coalition controlled NSW Parliament passed the Victims Rights and Support Bill, with the support of the Christian Democrats and Barry’s new mates, the Shooters and Fishers Party. The changes to compensation have been described by the Coalition as fair, appropriate and considered. While members from Labor and the Greens have described them as heinous, disgraceful, immoral, shameful and ‒ the description I’d agree with ‒ downright evil.

Many have been reduced to tears at the impact this Bill will have. A complaint has even been filed with the United Nations, it is so hideously immoral.

If there is something that we can take from this in the most begrudging way possible, it is that hopefully people will catch a glimpse of what may be around the corner with an Abbott-led Federal Government.

As you are probably aware, there was an inquiry held in Victoria recently into the ongoing problem of sexual abuse of children within religious organisations. Many of you may have heard Cardinal Pell admit to the deliberate acts of covering up for paedophiles within the organisation he rules over.

You are probably also aware of the upcoming Royal Commission into the sexual abuse of children by those within organised religions. This Royal Commission was initiated with overwhelming public support, and the begrudging approval of Tony Abbott as long as it didn’t turn into a Catholic witch-hunt, ironically something the Catholics were once famous for…

Australians supported this Royal Commission because most of us agree that a paedophile is the lowest of the low, and the perpetrators of these heinous crimes need to be sought out and severely punished. Instead, they were being given a silly hat, a robe, a bible, and a map to another town, where a new batch of altar-boys and school children were awaiting their guidance.

The public has had enough.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/nsw-government-delivering-us-not-from-evil/

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Meanwhile, after the police burned the paperwork,  the whistle-blowers are run over hot coals... See toon at top... Note: thought I don't know, I would say..... bugger the toon is self explanatory...

 

Not long after starting with the Truth, Justice and Healing Council - which, as you know, has been set up to provide a whole of Church response to the McClelland Royal Commission - I spent a day meeting a group of victims and survivors of clerical sexual abuse in Melbourne. For more than four hours I sat and listened to their stories, the horror they endured, and the betrayal they felt - the years of guilt, of humiliation, of isolation. It was harrowing and confronting. It also brought home to me how removed I was from their experiences.

After the final person finished their story, I was asked what I had to say. I look at the group and said that I didn't know what to say, that I had no answers. All I could eventually offer was what I thought would be dismissed by the group as yet another example of abandonment. All I could say was that I would do my best. After a long pause, a 50-year-old man looked at me and said, "Don't you dare let us down again." His comments haunt and motivate me.

What does it mean not to be let down? First and foremost, people who have been abused and damaged want to be believed, their experience understood and their words accepted. Secondly, they don't want to be isolated and ostracised. So how do we go down this path of not letting people down? From my perspective, the first thing is ensuring that victims and survivors are allowed to tell their stories, that they have the opportunity to stand up and be heard. The need to be given the time to tell their stories, no matter how long it takes for some to find the words and the courage to speak them.

....

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2013/06/24/3788319.htm

Francis Sullivan is the CEO of the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council. He was the Secretary-General of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), and before that the CEO of Catholic Health Australia. This is the text of the address he delivered to the St Thomas More Forum, Canberra, on Saturday, 22 June 201

 

This will be a dreadfully hard read… No, not because it’s bad, but because it is about the bad things that people do. It's essential reading. It raises the plight of victims, the destruction of whistleblowers, while showing the real badass side of the “establishment”… 

This is why I suppose you NEED to read it. It’s the story of a honest Catholic police officer fighting for justice and being dragged down by a system of law and order designed to protect pimps, designed to value corrupt government officials, designed to hide priests who sexually abused kids, and pay crooked cops. It’s the ugly truth. Only the ugly truth.

And no, I am not talking about Les Norton. “God” bless the butcher of Newcastle, Robert G. Barrett, who wrote this funny raw pulp airport fiction about crooked police and bent pimperesses in Kings Bloody Cross. I suspect these cartoon characters would have been based on reality as one could not mention more about these without saying "Juanita Nielsen"...

But this true Thunder is the story of a real copper in the R. G. Barrett Newcastle (Hunter) region — a cop who had to deal with an ever growing collection of crap — from domestic situations and murders to youth suicides and sexual abuse of kids by priests. 

This is real. More than real. It’s frightfully real. And the links between all, including sexual abuse networks, are unimaginable. The details are shocking.

As a copper and whistleblower exposing the truth, the “establishment” did not want to know about Peter Fox’s revelations — or worse — it did not want the truth to come out in public. The "establishment" made Peter Fox's life a misery... Typical. We have already mentioned this stuff which has recently extended to Cardinal Pell being sent to prison. 

Some people still think Pell is innocent, but the National Catholic Reporter tells of his imprisonment in no uncertain terms:

The response in certain circles to the Aug. 21 court decision upholding Cardinal George Pell's conviction for sexually assaulting two choirboys in the 1990s was as swift as it was irrational.

Edward Peters, a canon lawyer who teaches at Detroit's Sacred Heart Seminary, claimed in a tweet some 40 minutes after the verdict that "the testimony used to convict Thomas More was more plausible."

Hours later, John Paul II biographer George Weigel questioned at First Things whether people would want to travel to Australia anymore because of "mob hysteria." First Things editor Matthew Schmitz likened an aggrieved Pell to the suffering Christ.

In following days, Crux's John Allen said the odds against Pell being guilty are "awfully long." And the editor of Crisis Magazine, Michael Warren Davis, claimed it is "literally impossible" that Pell is guilty.

Even a cardinal joined in, with South Africa's Wilfrid Napier taking to Twitter to characterize Weigel's analysis as "daring," although the cardinal later said he did not mean to praise the biographer's point of view. (Nota bene, the Oxford English dictionary defines "daring" as "adventurous or audaciously bold.")

Forgive the graphic nature of the following, but it serves to indicate the seriousness of what these men dismiss.

According to 12 members of a jury of his peers, and to two appeals judges who just upheld their verdict, Pell, as archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, orally raped one 13-year-old boy and indecently assaulted another. Later, he sought the same boys out again to grab at their genitals at church.

Excuse us — perhaps it comes from 35 years' experience investigating such monstrous predators as Legionaries of Christ founder Marcial Maciel Degollado, who First Things defended for years, once calling him an "innocent and indeed holy person" — but we have some rather firm ideas about the consideration that should be accorded survivors of such despicable and cruel abuse.

In the interest of helping others care for victims — assuming, of course, that those defending the convicted cardinal have such intention — it seems only reasonable that basic courtesy is a minimum. When a person comes forward alleging that they have been abused by a minister in the Catholic Church — be it a priest, bishop, sister, teacher, parish worker or otherwise — they should be listened to, treated with respect, and presented with avenues for justice.

The primary responsibility for assessing the truth of the alleged victim's claim falls to those taking part in the court proceedings, and unless something's gone strangely awry, we still trust that the court systems of major advanced democracies, such as Australia, are reliable arbiters of justice.

Jesuit Fr. Michael Kelly wrote in a recent edition of La Croix International, "As an Australian priest, I am acutely aware of the fallout from this whole affair for the faithful. I have come to the conclusion that the best help I can be is help them to accept reality."

And that reality, he writes, is that George Pell is a convicted criminal. "The bottom line is that Pell was convicted of crimes unanimously by a trial jury. You either accept that this is the best our legal system can offer or you throw out trial by jury. And that's not going to happen."

Nor should it.

The Jesuit, a long-time journalist and founder of Eureka Street magazine, based in Melbourne, described the rationale for the loud and often anguished denial of the verdict unbalanced and exaggerated.

That certainly is the case in the examples cited above.

Weigel's take on the sex abuse scandal seems to wind through time like an out-of-tempo sine wave, its undulations dependent on whether friend or foe is in the dock and which pope happens to be in place. He was one of the original and loudest (with the rest of the crew at First Things) to deny the scandal altogether, then just as loudly tout the virtue of Maciel and the impossibility that this good and holy man could be accused of such vile activity.

When the evidence became overwhelming, his analysis became that Maciel and his minions duped the world and his favorite pope. His position required ignoring years of revealing work by reporters, exhausting attempts to get the pope's attention from eight or nine quite credible victims, and warnings from one or two bishops, all of whom weren't duped.

Pell's an old Weigel friend, and so the pundit's denial has expanded to indict the good people of an entire country along with its justice system.

As we understand it, Pell has opportunity for another appeal. Meanwhile, the church will continue to face a reckoning around the world with old sins newly revealed. Hysteria serves no purpose. An ongoing, sober accounting of what happened and an unblinking search for why and how it happened are the questions and answers that will best serve the people of God.

Amen. Good one (Gus is an atheist).

So, according to the National Catholic Reporter, I don’t think we stressed enough the horror of the abuses, nor the abuse directed at the whistleblower. 

The Church, the Catholic Church in these cases — not exclusively as we could say the same problems occurred in regard to other religious (and non-religion) institutions (including orphanages), the Anglicans and the Salvos — has been mightily powerfully protected by politicians in high office — possibly higher than god Himself (god is a male)— who would value the sanctity of secretly confessed sins, above all else. It’s ugly — especially when it’s ugly sins of the clergy against young kids... 

So the whistleblower doing his job is dragged through the worst injustices the justice system can throw at him. We know of Assange as well. 

Many people thank Julia Gillard for having instigated the Royal Commission into sexual abuse… But with the all powerful establishment, one should be aware that there will be more abuse, despite having been exposed. And for Gillard's courage, there was the need of Peter Fox and others such as Joanne McCarthy investigations and revelations.

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'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’ 

Former Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox is a hero in many people's eyes. A police officer with 36 years' service in the Hunter region, he rose to national prominence in 2012 for his major role in speaking out for the victims of abuse within the church. He had been at the coalface fighting these heinous crimes for decades. He had worked with the victims and supported their families. He knew an enquiry was long overdue. His decision to become a whistle blower helped trigger Prime Minister Julia Gillard's historic decision to establish a far-reaching Royal Commission into the sexual abuse of children in institutions.

He had no idea what speaking up would unleash. Peter's dedication and focus cost him his career, his health and also affected his wife's health. He and his family were threatened. Former friends shunned him. But the victims and the families that he supported consider him their champion. To them he is a hero.

WALKING TOWARDS THUNDER details the cumulative horrors our police face every day, it reveals the cover ups and the way sexual predators were moved around. It shows the backlash he faced and the lengths those in power will go to avoid facing the truth. Confronting and inspiring, this is an unforgettable story.


https://www.hachette.com.au/peter-fox/walking-towards-thunder-the-true-s...


Read from top.

See also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/28980

One of the state's most notorious criminals has walked free from prison and immediately been given a taste of what life on the outside might be like.

Key points:

• Michael Guider walked from Long Bay Jail shortly after 3.00pm carrying two garbage bags
• He was jailed for the manslaughter of Samantha Knight and abusing more than a dozen children
• He will live in a halfway house attached to the jail under a strict five-year supervision order

 

Michael Guider served 17 years in jail after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Sydney schoolgirl Samantha Knight.

He walked from Sydney's Long Bay Jail around 3.00pm carrying a garbage bag in both hands, a large tumour visible on his leg.

As he slipped into a silver car which was to drive him to a halfway house, members of the public shouted, "Dog!".

A short way into the drive, the 68-year-old was targeted for several minutes by a man wearing a high-vis jacket and riding a motorcycle.

At one point the rider took out his mobile phone and appeared to snap a photograph of Guider in the back seat.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-05/samantha-knight-killer-michael-gu...

 

I might go beyond what decency would recommend here and I may have collected erroneous information from usually reliable sources. I have been told that Michael Guider was sexually abused during his time in institutions, and then became an abuser himself... 

Michael Guider was born in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He and his mother moved to Sydney in 1952. His mother had an unstable relationship with an army cook who was an alcoholic. A brother, Tim, was born in 1953.[1] The two boys spent time in institutions because their mother was unstable and unable to look after them.[1]Guider later told prison psychologists that he sexually abused his mother, his brother Tim, and a few of the younger boys at the boys' home.

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Guider

 

 

Read above: the ugly truth...

Victims are traumatised. Many victims have difficulties to be heard, especially when sexual abuse is done by priests who are highly regarded by their families. Some victims will attempt suicide, others will be unstable for life — unable to hold a job or be part of a family. Some will adjust and forget — but they rarely forgive... Some will become abusers themselves...

More evidence has come to light that paedophile priests working in the Melbourne and Ballarat Catholic dioceses operated in an organised network that included a suburban 'safe house'.

Key points:

• A Victorian sexual abuse survivor says he was molested at a Melbourne presbytery in the 1990s
• His abuser, a convicted paedophile, considered the priest who lived at the residence to be his mentor
• The claim comes amid new separate allegations that paedophile priests had operated in a network

 

Deon Cameron was in his final year of high school when he travelled from his family home at Penshurst, in Victoria's west, to stay at a church residence in Melbourne to visit his mother in hospital.

It was 1991, and Mr Cameron's parish priest, Paul David Ryan — who had routinely assaulted Mr Cameron since he was 14 years old — had offered to put him up at the presbytery in a leafy suburb in the city's south-east.

"He had a room set up for me but didn't actually have me spend time in that room," Mr Cameron, now 45, said.

"I think I spent one night in that room out of the two that we were there.

"It didn't really feel normal, but I was trying to normalise it — that's constantly what I was trying to do in this situation, when it was anything but normal.

"The most difficult thing had already occurred and over a period of time it's almost a numbing effect — the grooming just continued on."

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-19/paedophile-priests-in-melbourne-s...

 

 

Read from top especially the ugly truth...

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