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Victims Question Church Inaction

By Mike Hedge
7 News
November 14, 2013

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/19829545/victims-question-church-inaction/

Every kid in the school knew what was going on, and many had scars to show for it.

But until this week the victims of men like the Christian Brothers Robert Best and Edward Dowlan struggled with the thought that no one really believed them.

Thanks to the Victorian parliamentary committee that conducted Australia's most far-reaching investigation into child sexual abuse in religious organisations, men like "Stephen", who is now in his 40s, have a chance.

Stephen went to school at St Patricks in Ballarat, a town where there once lived some of the most despicable men this country has known.

Best and Dowlan have been convicted and another pedophile Christian Brother, Gerald Fitzgerald, is dead, Father Paul Ryan has been jailed and there are others who can't be named. All of them preyed viciously and habitually on children they had vowed to protect.

Stephen says he's happy enough with the report "Betrayal Of Trust", but he's not so pleased with gaps in the Catholic Church's acknowledgement of what happened or the timing of its sudden horror and revulsion.

"The entire hierarchy of the church in Ballarat at that time has to be held accountable," he said.

"It isn't possible that they didn't know when every boy in the school knew."

One of those who was fully aware is the former bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns.

"Mulkearns knew about it, but he did nothing, absolutely nothing," Stephen said.

Bishop Mulkearns, who suffered a stroke several years ago and was duly excused from giving evidence to the inquiry, demonstrated his knowledge by regularly moving the offenders around his diocese.

He sent Ryan, whose offending began even before he was ordained, to the United States seven times for counselling and psychological help - until it was revealed the pedophile priest was also offending there.

Bishop Mulkearns has also acknowledged he was aware of another priest's "problems" in 1975. But he never reported any of his fellow clergy to the police.

The Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell, who was born in Ballarat, served as the Episcopal Vicar for Education in the city from 1973-84.

Cardinal Pell gave evidence to the inquiry, much of which revealed the inclination of the Catholic Church to protect itself ahead of its parishioners.

He conceded his church placed pedophile priests above the law, destroyed documents concerning their crimes and was slow to react.

But no evidence before the inquiry demonstrated the church's attitude more graphically than that of Chrissie and Anthony Foster whose daughters Emma and Katie were victims of a priest described by the current Archbishop of Melbourne as possibly the worst pedophile in Australian history.

Father Kevin O'Donnell systematically raped the little girls from the time Emma, the youngest, was five years old.

Emma later committed suicide and Katie is in a wheelchair after being hit by a car.

O'Donnell had been accused of sexual offences against children in other parishes before coming into contact with Emma and Katie at Sacred Heart primary school at Oakleigh in Melbourne's southeast.

Chrissie Foster's evidence to the inquiry detailed a meeting with the then Archbishop of Melbourne George Pell concerning Father O'Donnell.

She told how her husband had suggested the church should acknowledge its responsibility if his gravely ill daughter died.

"George Pell countered by saying the church's liability would be defended in court," Ms Foster told the inquiry.

"When Anthony mentioned the church had known about O'Donnell's pedophilia for many decades, Cardinal Pell said: `That was before my time'.

"We believed Archbishop Pell knew O'Donnell assaulted Emma. But Anthony repeated the facts for him, just in case."

To which, according to her evidence, Cardinal Pell replied: "I hope you can substantiate that in court."

She said her husband had pleaded that they were victims, suggesting the church's protocols for handling complaints and compensation was merely a cost-saving measure.

"Archbishop Pell interjected: `If you don't like what we're doing, take us to court'."

They did, and at a time when the maximum amount being offered by the church was $50,000, Emma Foster received a $450,000 payout.

Cardinal Pell told the inquiry he had great sympathy for the Fosters and the fate of their daughters, but he said he had no recollection of saying he hoped the Fosters could substantiate their claims in court.

In his response to the release this week of the Betrayal of Trust report, Cardinal Pell said it would help children and vulnerable people to be better protected and allow those who have been hurt easier access to justice.

"The report details some of the serious failures in the way the church dealt with these crimes and responded to victims, especially before the procedural reforms of the mid 1990s," he said.

"Irreparable damage has been caused.

"By the standards of common decency and by today's standards, church authorities were not only slow to deal with the abuse, but sometimes did not deal with it in any appropriate way at all.

"This is indefensible."

But no more indefensible than it was 10 or 20 or 50 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 




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