Melbourne Catholic Archbishop Admits 'Awful Blight on Church'

By Heather Ewart
ABC News
May 20, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-20/melbourne-catholic-archbishop-admits-awful-blight/4701710?section=vic

[with video]

Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart has told Victoria's parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse that the Church was slow to act on alleged abuse by clergy.

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: One by one, the leaders of Australia's Church hierarchy are being held to account over the decades of child sex abuse that occurred around the country.

Today it was the turn of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart to be grilled at the Victorian parliamentary inquiry on its second last day of public hearings.

Under intense questioning, Archbishop Hart was forced to admit to a cover-up and years of delay in dealing with perpetrators in his diocese.

National affairs correspondent Heather Ewart reports.

HEATHER EWART, REPORTER: These victims have been waiting years for this day to come. They've travelled together by train from Geelong to see the Catholic Church's Archbishop Denis Hart face some tough questions.

What do you want from this inquiry today?

CHRIS PIANTO: Justice for the survivors of sex abuse. ... Catholic clergy or abusers of children to be brought to justice.

JOE SARIC: We are not pariahs, we are not unfortunate mistakes and we're not collateral damage.

MAX THOMPSON: All these years I've had to struggle for work, through not (inaudible) to read or write I couldn't get a job or anything. And I think they owe me something in life for a change. All they were is just a heap of paedophiles as far as I'm concerned.

HEATHER EWART: Joe Saric, Chris Pianto and Max Thompson suffered abuse by priests or Church employees at different Catholic schools and institutions dating back to the 1950s.

CHRIS PIANTO: On a lot of occasions I would dry retch with his penis in my mouth and which in turn he would force if further down my throat.

MAX THOMPSON: Over the period of time I was there, I was raped five times. I complained to 'em there and they'd done nothing. They just looked the other way.

HEATHER EWART: Helen Last from the In Good Faith victims support group is their advocate who's been helping them in their efforts to get counselling and compensation from the Church.

HELEN LAST, VICTIMS ADVOCATE: I hope the truth to come out. I want that to be seen. The fact that the Church hierarchs have been able to hide behind their role for over 16 years, setting up the systems they have, which has really hurt victims and their families and their communities.

HEATHER EWART: Archbishop Denis Hart is the head of the Melbourne Diocese of the Catholic Church. He's the highest Catholic office holder so far to have been brought before this inquiry and made to answer questions about the Church's conduct.

DENIS HART, ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE: The reason why we were slow at the start was that these awful criminals are secretive and cunning and devious and they've kept their evil deeds secret and that is deserving of great condemnation.

FRANK MCGUIRE, VICTORIAN MP: But complaints were made, it's just that they were covered up. As a community we would've been onto this issue much more and we would've been better informed about what was really going on if the Church had've owned up to it.

DENIS HART: I agree. I stand by what we've done since 1996 nevertheless.

HEATHER EWART: It was the admission the victims and inquiry members had been looking for. The Archbishop was grilled for three hours and devoted a lot of that time to blaming his predecessor, Archbishop Little, for the cover-up.

FRANK MCGUIRE: The Catholic Church in the Melbourne Archdiocese facilitated moving on paedophile priests to innocent parishes and further victims whose lives were blighted or in some cases ended up in suicide.

DENIS HART: That gives me no joy at all.

FRANK MCGUIRE: That's the fact of the matter, isn't it? But, i just wanna get it on the record: that's the fact of the matter, isn't it it?

DENIS HART: Let's be very clear: there's only one person who is ultimately responsible and that is the archbishop of the time.

FRANK MCGUIRE: So what does that say about Archbishop Little's behaviour?

DENIS HART: It says that he kept no records and kept them to himself.

FRANK MCGUIRE: It said that he was covering up, doesn't it?

DENIS HART: I can't justify that way of acting, I must say, myself.

FRANK MCGUIRE: Well, I think it's by deduction, isn't it, that he's got - here are the instructions from Rome. It's the foulest crime, but you've gotta keep strict confidentiality. You know, and here is the the pattern of behaviour from Archbishop Little that he kept no records. So therefore, he was covering it up.

DENIS HART: Well that's the first matter. There's a second matter.

FRANK MCGUIRE: Do you agree with that?

DENIS HART: Well, I'd have to agree with that, I think, yep.

HEATHER EWART: It was the case of the priest Father Des Gannon who was convicted and jailed for the sexual assault of 13 boys that exposed the Church's lack of action until an inquiry was mooted. Archbishop Hart wrote to the Vatican last year, almost two decades after Gannon's first conviction, voicing concern the Church hadn't defrocked the priest.

???: And it took till 2011, 18 years, for to you contact Rome.

DENIS HART: Well, better late than never.

GEORGIE CROZIER, COMMITTEE CHAIR: Well, Archbishop Hart, do you not agree that for many victims of a priest like - a former priest like Des Gannon that the Archdiocese of Melbourne didn't do that fast enough? Would you agree?

DENIS HART: I would say we did what we could. I wish it had been earlier, i agree with you.

HEATHER EWART: The Archbishop stood by what's known as the Church's Melbourne response: a complaints handling process introduced in 1996 for victims of sexual abuse.

DENIS HART: I believe that it's well conceived. I believe that we are sincere in what we're trying to do and I stand by that.

COMMITTEE MEMBER: So that's what you'd like the public to believe.

DENIS HART: No, that's what I believe. People will make up their own minds about it, won't they?

HEATHER EWART: This was the verdict of survivors of abuse as the hearing wrapped up late today:

Do you feel better or worse after what you've heard today?

JOE SARIC: I feel actually better in some ways, but worse because it's taken 17 years for me to hear the absolute dysfunction and - of the Catholic Church. Right across every spectrum, it's proof me that they're absolutely, utterly incompetent.

HEATHER EWART: Next week Cardinal George Pell, the former Archbishop of Melbourne, will front the inquiry for its final public hearing. The inquiry members hope his key testimony will fill the gaps, but they're not counting on it.