Royal Commission Shines a Light on Catholic Church's Towards Healing

By Emily Bourke
The ABC News
December 8, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-09/royal-commission-shines-a-light-on-catholic/5143524?section=qld

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Royal Commission will spend the next two weeks examining the Catholic Church's Towards Healing protocols and how they've worked. The public examination over the next two weeks will look at the cases of four Queensland residents who were abused by Catholic clergy in Brisbane, Lismore and two Marist schools in Queensland. Catholic Church's truth justice and healing council has resolved to reform the process. The Royal Commission's public inquiry of Towards Healing will continue throughout the life of the inquiry.

TONY EASTLEY: It's been one of the Catholic Church's more controversial responses to the scourge of child sexual abuse, and now it's about to undergo a forensic examination by the Royal Commission.

For the next fortnight the Royal Commission will publicly examine how four abuse victims were treated by the Catholic Church when they lodged a complaint through the church's Towards Healing process.

Sexual abuse victims and their lawyers maintain it's a process that re-traumatises survivors and should be scrapped altogether.

Here's Emily Bourke.

EMILY BOURKE: The Royal Commission says around 40 per cent of the calls, emails and statements it's received are about the Catholic Church.

And over the next two weeks, the inquiry will publicly hear from four people who were abused by Catholic priests in Brisbane and Lismore and by Marist Brothers in two Queensland schools.

JANETTE DINES: Once again we have some incredibly courageous people who are coming forward and telling their story.

EMILY BOURKE: Janette Dines is the CEO of the Royal Commission.

JANETTE DINES: The individuals all had very different experiences in going through the Towards Healing process and that's part of the usefulness of hearing the four stories together because it gives us an opportunity to look at how the application of the policies and procedures of Towards Healing might differ when you apply them to different circumstances, and how different amounts of compensation or different conditions such as confidentiality requirements might be attached to an individual.

EMILY BOURKE: Towards Healing was set up in the 1990s as a pastoral and compensation scheme for sexual abuse victims.

JASON PARKINSON: It should be called "beyond healing".

EMILY BOURKE: Jason Parkinson is a solicitor who's represented around 100 clients who have been through Towards Healing.

JASON PARKINSON: It was easy for an abuser to take advantage of a small child. It's a lot harder for the church to take advantage of an adult, although through Towards Healing that's what they try to do.

At one level they send these psychiatrically damaged victims for counselling and from their view these victims will then just be on a counselling merry-go-round for years to come, and they will never finish their claim. They're just in orbit.

At other times, they will quite properly give 10 sessions with a psychologist that they will pay for, which is of benefit. But that just allows them to then keep dealing with a person who quite frankly is not able to deal in their own best interests. They're not able to weigh up whether an offer being made is suitable.

FRANCIS SULLIVAN: Five-point-five million Catholics deserve to hear how the church has handled this miserable history and it needs to hear where the church covered up, where the church didn't take responsibility, because the community at large has the same questions.

EMILY BOURKE: Francis Sullivan is from the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, which is coordinating the Catholic Church's response to the Royal Commission.

FRANCIS SULLIVAN: The Catholic Church has to be battered as much as it needs to be battered for what has been its history. You can't run away from your history. What you can do is actually show people that you have learnt from the history, that you're listening and hearing what victims are saying and that you are putting in place real actions that reflect your credibility in this debate.

EMILY BOURKE: Can the Catholic Church be put in charge of delivering a compassionate and just system for dealing with complaints?

FRANCIS SULLIVAN: The days of the Catholic Church investigating itself are over. The complaints handling, the complaints investigation, should be done completely by an independent body.

The Church has an obligation to respond to the pastoral needs of individuals and they can certainly put in place a compassionate pastoral response. But it should contribute to a compensation response, that's determined by an independent body.

TONY EASTLEY: Francis Sullivan from the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council. Emily Bourke our reporter.