BishopAccountability.org

Out of the Misery and Shame, There Are Lessons for US All

By Frank McGuire
The Herald Sun
November 13, 2013

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/out-of-the-misery-and-shame-there-are-lessons-for-us-all/story-fni0ffsx-1226759311973#

BETRAYAL of Trust reveals the cover-up that killed. The investigation was into crime, not faith, but like the journey through Dante's Inferno, the deeper the descent, the more horrific the suffering.

Men claiming to represent God committed foul crimes against children, once hanging offences, while religious denominations practised wilful blindness, protecting the paedophiles through cultures of concealment.

The Anglican and Catholic churches and the Salvation Army frequently took steps to conceal wrongdoing, according to their concessions and a substantial body of credible evidence.

Victorian governments failed their duty in orphanages and homes. Children suffered the betrayal of neglect or abandonment as infants, then once taken into the community's care were grievously abused physically, emotionally and sexually.

The fortitude of the innocents who testified was inspiring. Their courage is humbling. Silver-haired men cradled photographs of themselves as smiling schoolboys. A middle-aged woman had a snap from her first Holy Communion. Each memento was a cry from the heart yearning for innocence lost.




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