BRISBANE (AUSTRALIA)
The Catholic Leader
November 2, 2017
By Emilie Ng
CATHOLICS from seven parishes in Brisbane’s west have acknowledged the Church’s failing of survivors of sexual abuse during a moving healing liturgy in Kenmore.
Parishioners from the Brisbane West deanery, which incorporates the parishes of Corinda Graceville, Darra Jindalee, Inala, Indooroopilly, Kenmore, St Lucia and Toowong, gathered at Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Kenmore, on October 23 to acknowledge “the hurt and injuries inflicted upon the innocent” by members of the Church.
Brisbane West dean Fr Mark Franklin led the liturgy, which was an adaptation of the Archdiocese of Dublin’s Liturgy of Lament and Repentance for the sexual abuse of children by priests and religious.
Fr Franklin said he had adapted the liturgy for his previous parish in Noosa and recently discerned the need for the Brisbane West community to “acknowledge before God and before our brothers and sisters that we had failed as a Church”.
“Protecting our most vulnerable is not a part-time or stop-gap measure; we as a Church have broken that trust and we must now continue to work on healing and restoring people’s faith in us until this evil has been eradicated,” he said.
“We are all responsible for what’s happened.”
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