AUSTRALIA
SBS
Source AAP
The voices of the outraged are getting louder.
The UN has added its call to the chorus from inquiries across the globe demanding the Catholic Church come clean about sex predators in its ranks.
Above the din, or ironically maybe because of the din, you can hear for the first time the voices of people who stayed hidden because they felt the shame and confusion of the oppressed.
As children they were given into the care of adults who ran homes for charitable institutions like the Salvation Army or the churches. Once in these homes they were often met not with benevolence but with real cruelty and a relentless undermining of their own worth.
This arrangement happened because governments across the world, including in Australia, never provided enough cash to take care of children in need and were glad when the good people of organisations like the Salvation Army came forward to help.
Governments have always provided a “poor service for poor children” said former Queensland senior public servant Janice Doyle when she was asked by Justice Peter McClellan, chair of the royal commission into child sexual abuse, to ponder why abuse in homes was widespread.
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