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Australians urged to stand up to Vatican as US priest slams church's response to abuse

SBS
February 7, 2017

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/02/07/australians-urged-stand-vatican-us-priest-slams-churchs-response-abuse

A psychologist who used to work for a notorious Catholic order has urged Australians to stand up to Rome at the child abuse royal commission.

[with video]

Australian Catholics should stand up to Rome over its response to child sexual abuse and demand a fair go for victims, a royal commission has heard.

A psychiatrist who worked for the St John of God Brothers before leaving over concerns about systemic abuse and corruption, delivered a scathing assessment of the church's response to child sex offences during evidence on Tuesday.

Michelle Mulvihill told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse priests were currently almost "unsackable" and that all pastoral care workers should be registered.

"It's time for us, as Australians, to stand up to Rome and say 'We are not little Rome, we are not little Italy'," Dr Mulvihill said in Sydney.

"We are Australians and in Australia we believe in a fair go."

Data released by the commission on Monday revealed 40 per cent of St John of God Brothers from 1950 to 2010 were accused pedophiles.

The data also revealed 4444 people made complaints to Australian Catholic authorities between 1980 and February 2015.

American Dominican priest Father Thomas Doyle, who was sacked from his Vatican embassy role after showing an interest in sexual abuse cases in the 1980s, said he still remembers the "empty" face of the first victim he met.

He said Church leaders misunderstood human sexuality and had not historically realised an abuse victim's life would never be the same again.

"That's soul murder. Sometimes those murdered souls stay dead," Dr Doyle said.

The author of a graphic 1985 report about alleged abuse, which was read by Pope John Paul II, was applauded on Tuesday when giving evidence in Sydney.

Dr Doyle was scathing of the church's responses to abuse, saying a culture of clericalism which viewed male Church leaders as "sacred", was a "virus" that had infected the establishment.

Church leaders misunderstood human sexuality and had not historically realised a victim's life would never be the same again, he said.

Royal commission data released on Monday revealed 4444 alleged child sex victims had made complaints to 93 Australian Catholic authorities between 1980 and 2015.

Dr Doyle, who consulted for victims on the Pope Francis-established Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said a lack of pastoral care for victims was one of the "biggest holes" in the response.

He said one woman on the commission thought her job was to make the Vatican "look good" and didn't speak to some victims.

"There's something wrong with that picture," he said.

"The primary importance, the primary concern, has to be the victims of sexual abuse or any other kind of abuse that happens at the hands of clergy."

Professor Francis Moloney from the Catholic Theological College said the "death-dealing wheel" of the Catholic Church was slowly turning but seminary teachings had gone backwards in the direction of tradition.

Australian Catholic University Professor Neil Ormerod said people who were working on human sexuality and "getting people to develop as mature adult Christians" were replaced at a Sydney college around the time George Pell became Archbishop in 2001.

Dr Moloney said the old tradition remained "well and truly in force".

"So much so that that the newly ordained priests will now wear little hats on their heads and long lace vestments and say their first mass in Latin," he said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten pledged to offer survivors redress during a short truce in parliament on Tuesday.

"This is not just a history lesson. This is not just a sad tale from times past," Mr Turnbull told MPs.

"This is a reminder to all of us today, in every part of the nation to protect the vulnerable in our care, the children in our care in whatever context."

Abuse victim's souls 'murdered': expert

Dr Doyle says the pastoral care of victims is a massive hole in the church's approach.

Dr Doyle says because of the church's teachings on human sexuality, many clerics and church leaders are unable to comprehend the damage that child sexual abuse or the rape of an adult does to an individual.

"They don't comprehend what has happened to those victims," Dr Doyle told the child abuse royal commission on Tuesday.

"That's never going to go away.

"That's soul murder and sometimes those murdered souls stay dead."

Dr Doyle said his three decades working with survivors has revealed the profound spiritual damage done to victims from devout Catholic families.

"One of the massive holes in the Roman Catholic Church's approach to this issue still today is a failure to completely comprehend the depth of the spiritual damage that is done to the victims, to their families, especially their parents, their friends and to the community itself," he said.

"I've never seen anything coming out of the Holy See dealing with the spiritual damage.

"All I've seen is 'get them to go back to church', which is nuts, that's crazy."

The church has to take care of the victims, said Dr Doyle, who was sacked from his position in the Vatican embassy in Washington in 1986 after he "stood up to the system".

"The issue today for the church is the pastoral care and the support and the love of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who they have violated spiritually and physically over the years," he said.

"It's not enough to say give them money to go to psychologists."

The hearing continues.




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