AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser
By Erin Handley
Dec. 30, 2015
A Castlemaine woman was left deflated after a local Catholic church removed ribbons she had strung to symbolise support for victims of child sexual abuse.
Melinda Webster said she tied ribbons in pink, green, red and purple, with tags explaining their meaning, to the front entrance at St Mary’s Catholic Parish in Castlemaine last week, only to return two hours later and find them gone.
Ms Webster said she was “not surprised, but disappointed” by the ribbons being removed from the church so swiftly.
Two years ago, at the age of 50, her own husband disclosed his own history of abuse in an interstate boarding school.
Father Wahid Riad of St Mary’s in Castlemaine said he had not removed the ribbons, although some of his parishioners had mentioned them to him and they may have taken them down.
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.