AUSTRALIA
The Age
November 26, 2012
Jane Lee
VICTIMS of clergy abuse should report allegations and suspicions to police rather than to religious organisations, victim advocates say.
Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) handed out flyers to parishioners as they left Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday, asking for victims, witnesses and people with suspicions to contact the police, a therapist or a support group. Most people accepted the pamphlets.
”Come forward and get the help you deserve,” the flyers say. ”If you reach out healing, justice, prevention and closure are possible. If you stay silent, they are not possible. Please don’t suffer in isolation, shame, anger and self-blame.”
It comes as psychologists, suicide helplines and support groups said they had been flooded with victims’ calls for counselling since Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a royal commission on child abuse on November 12.
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