AUSTRALIA
Catholica

The harsh reality
by Dr Gabe Lomas

Of late we’ve been confronted by a succession of horrendous tales about the perpetration and institutional mis-management of pædophilia in the Catholic church. We’ve sat through the revealing Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the handling of child abuse by Religious and other non-governmental organisations, and the equally confronting New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. And we’re at the beginning of a probing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Catholic institutions, along with other organisations, are certainly in the Public Eye.

An exposition of the horrifying experiences endured by victims of pædophilia, and the monstrous damage those experiences have wrecked on them, have jolted us into seeing more clearly the consequences of this perverted activity. The pædophile can…