AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury
By EMMA S WAIN May 6, 2013
Today marks the start of the first public hearings into child sexual abuse allegations within the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.
By his own admission, Diocesan head Bishop Bill Wright (pictured) said the hearings would leave the community appalled, outraged and angered. He said above all – the stories about to be heard – would be extremely grim.
“We know there will be a lot of people wishing to tell their stories and that’s going to be pretty awful,” Bishop Wright said.
“In the first instance, the community will be appalled, outraged, angry, sympathetic and all the rest of it. And for people who have not had their minds turned too much to this whole issue, I think it’s going to be very hard to avoid it in the coming time.
“There will be a lot of stories that will be very grim for people to hear and there will be a lot of anger directed, and fair enough, at the perpetrators. But this will also be directed at the church and, as time goes on, other institutions which have dealt badly with these things.” …
The hearings will continue until May 17 and will resume again on June 24 until July 12. The special commission of inquiry will work with the National Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
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