AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 24, 2015

Konrad Marshall

Normally swung shut and baldly unadorned, the wrought iron gates of the early Gothic church were flung wide open on Sunday morning, and tied with colourful ribbons.

They will remain that way at St Patrick’s Cathedral throughout the course of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat, as an expression of the parish desire to be open to this ongoing pain.

Father Justin Driscoll was dressed in resplendent red for Mass, and he stood above the congregation of 100 or more, both welcoming and commanding, his hands raised as the searching homily began.

“I don’t know what to say – and don’t know what not to say,” he said, pausing. “Part of me wants to be silent for long enough to allow the real impact of this past week to simply stay with us.”

It has…