AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net
The Catholic Church’s program for dealing with claims of child sexual abuse, “Towards Healing”, continued to be the focus of the fourth hearings of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, today.
Yesterday the hearings featured the church’s lawyer, Peter Gray, whose biblical quotations triggered a walk-out from some members of the gallery, and distressed many others. It also featured Mrs. Joan Isaacs, who was molested by Fr. Frank Derriman in the late sixties, and who received a short prison sentence in 1998 for that offence. Mrs. Isaacs continued her evidence at today’s hearing, concerning her experiences with the “Towards Healing” process.
She informed the enquiry that, on two occasions, she was forced to chase up the church authority for payment for counseling sessions, after her counselor revealed that bills sent to Towards Healing had gone unpaid. Despite the paltry sum offered to Mrs. Isaacs (less than $10,000 after costs), the Brisbane Archdiocese had a fund with $154 million in it which was available for compensation.
She had been made to sign a deed of release which included the phrase along the lines of not being critical of the church. In 2001, she received a second draft of a deed of release from Towards Healing, containing a clause that she could not discuss the matter with anyone, including her husband and children.
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