AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Oliver Milman
@olliemilman
Tuesday 19 May 2015
A history of child sex abuse and its legacy of suicide is like an “unseen cancer” in the Victorian town of Ballarat, say abuse survivors who have criticised the Catholic church over its response to the crimes.
Speaking at the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse, former students of Catholic institutions in the Ballarat area explained the legacy of more than three decades of abuse that went unreported by senior Catholic clergy.
“The Catholic church seems remorseless and unapologetic,” said Paul Auchettl, 57, who was molested while he attended the St Alipius primary school. “They have supported the offenders and they have paid some victims, but often that has not helped.”
A raft of suicides in Ballarat has been linked to the widespread abuse of children in five Catholic institutions. Philip Nagle, 50, told the hearing that of 33 boys in his school year, he believed 12 had killed themselves.
Auchettl said: “Shame is rife; it’s like an unseen cancer in this town. There is no collective memory or place to mark the abuse and the horror of the number of suicides. There is nothing that brings us together to talk about this. It is like an unseen carnage.”
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