AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury
By GEMMA KHAICY April 5, 2014
Kathleen McCormack has retired from the Wollongong Catholic welfare agency she established 35 years ago. She spoke to GEMMA KHAICY about what she witnessed through her work.
The Church’s culture of silence muted their voices, but the pain of sexual abuse victims burned until it couldn’t be contained.
When CatholicCare’s Kathleen McCormack heard victims’ stories, she went straight to the police demanding justice.
“Sexual abuse in general was a hidden culture, no one talked about it,” she says.
“A number of parents abused their children too, and in those days people didn’t believe or support you.”
In the early to mid-1990s, CatholicCare advocated for victims of sexual abuse in the Church and asked clergy to address the problem.
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