Inquiry Hears Church's 'Sorry Too Late'

The Sky News
December 10, 2013

http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=932508

 

Twelve years after being silenced by the Catholic Church, Joan Isaacs can now tell the world about the sexual and emotional abuse inflicted upon her as a schoolgirl.

Ms Isaacs was applauded as she left the witness stand at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday after finally talking publicly about the abuse dealt her by Father Francis Derriman more than 40 years ago.

The church last week lifted the legally binding agreement she made in 2001 in return for a $30,000 payment, in a gesture she said was 'too little, too late.'

Ms Isaacs, 60, received a letter from Brisbane Archbishop, the Most Reverend Mark Coleridge, saying she was no longer required to observe the conditions of the settlement agreed to under the church's Towards Healing process.

A confidentiality clause required her not to speak to anyone, except for medical reasons, about her abuse and demanded that she not make 'disparaging comments' about the process and the archdiocese.

She said one of the reasons she came to the Royal Commission was because she 'needed to be free of these chains before I died'.

In an emotional first day of the commission's hearings into Towards Healing - the Church's internal procedures for dealing with sex abuse allegations - several observers walked out as church lawyer Peter Gray SC quoted St Mark, others protested outside and commission chairman rebuked Mr Gray.

Like many other victims, Ms Isaacs said the Towards Healing process re-traumatised her and she had been silenced.

In last week's letter, Rev Coleridge said: 'I can only hope that this belated gesture will assist you to move further on the path to peace and healing.'

She said she was 'waiting and waiting (for an apology) and I heard the opening address from the Church this morning and how sorry they were for everything that happened and I went back to my letter and I couldn't find sorry anywhere'.

Ms Isaacs had been sexually and emotionally abused by Father Derriman when she was 14 and 15 years of age.

Derriman, who served eight months in jail, has left the church and is now married and living in Victoria.

Ms Isaacs said at the time Father Derriman had lied about being terminally ill and said he would kill himself if she did not have sex with him.

A visibly upset Ms Isaacs told how he would put his finger in her mouth during Holy Communion.

As she left the stand, people in the crowded hearing room spontaneously clapped.

Earlier, some had walked out when Mr Gray, representing the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council quoted the Gospel of Mark.

Mr Gray said the church was deeply sorry and referred to the hearing as a 'day of reckoning for the Catholic Church'.

'It apologises to all those who have been harmed and betrayed. It humbly asks for forgiveness,' he said.

When he quoted chapter 10 verse 14 from the gospel according to Mark with the phrase 'Let the little children come to me ....', people walked out with cries of 'goodness me' and 'what an insult'. Some cried outside the hearing.

Mr Gray was twice interrupted by commission chair Justice Peter McClellan.

Justice McClellan said Mr Gray was expressing conclusions in some of what he said, and advised him this was the commission's job.

Senior counsel advising the commission, Gail Furness, in her opening statement said data supplied by the church was incomplete and not up to date.