AUSTRALIA
Independent Australia
Lyn Bender
6 June 2015
‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’ doesn’t cut it for a Church that has protected itself and its priests over victims, writes Lyn Bender.
THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has exposed generations of abuse that has been quietly countenanced by “good” people, and respected institutions.
The evidence given in Ballarat to the Royal Commission is excruciatingly unbearable to hear. It is blood chilling evidence of a cancerous contagion of loathsome cruelty. It is generational and passed on from priest to priest — some of whom received their own fierce initiation.
But while the abuse is of itself a horror story, the damage reaches far out into the community. The greatest injury is to the trust in those to whom many would turn in time of need. Those anointed to provide support wisdom and moral guidance. Those who betrayed trust were pronounced the guardians of Christian teachings — on love, compassion and care for the vulnerable. But the Church is also the guardian of centuries of outdated dogma that excludes and punishes. It is perhaps this contradiction that has fostered the schism of values that has institutionalised a satanic enactment of abuse and brought suffering to its children. “Suffer the little children” has been bastardised.
The lukewarm apology of the Catholic Church to the unfolding revelations of cruelty is, of itself, appalling testimony to the pervasive attitude of diminishing the harm done. With the vast lexicon of words to describe sin and transgression, those now bearing witness as church elders at the Commission can muster very little ownership of the trauma inflicted. All seems to be concentrated on saving the beast of the constructed Church. In the reverence for this incarnation of a religion, the parishioners have been forgotten.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.