Outrage over Bishop's Abuse Remarks, Barney Zwartz, The Age, July 17, 2008

Outrage over Bishop's Abuse Remarks

By Barney Zwartz
The Age

July 17, 2008

http://www.theage.com.au/national/outrage-over-bishops-abuse-remarks-20080716-3gcr.html

THE Pope's expected apology to victims of sexual abuse by priests has been sabotaged by a senior Australian bishop, who criticised people for "dwelling crankily on old wounds".

The bishop organising World Youth Day, Anthony Fisher, made the remarks in response to questions about two Melbourne women who were repeatedly raped by priest Kevin O'Donnell when they were pupils at Sacred Heart Primary School in Oakleigh from 1988 to 1993.

The case was detailed on ABC's Lateline on Tuesday, but Bishop Fisher told the World Youth Day daily media briefing that he had not seen the program. "Happily, I think most of Australia was enjoying, delighting in, the beauty and goodness of these young people … rather than dwelling crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds," he said.

Bishop Anthony Fisher
Photo by Peter Morris

The girls' parents, Anthony and Christine Foster, are flying into Sydney from London to confront Cardinal George Pell before Sunday's papal Mass in Sydney.

Speaking from transit in Tokyo, they said Bishop Fisher's comments were outrageous. "We are still grieving over our daughters, and many other victims are struggling every day," he said. "To think this issue is over when the abuse stops is ridiculous. There are people self-harming, committing suicide, drinking, using drugs, because of sexual assaults committed by Catholic priests."

Christine Foster said she was also deeply hurt. "There are no old wounds for victims," she said. "It is always current."

Emma Foster committed suicide this year, aged 26, after a long battle with drug addiction, while Katherine drank heavily before being left disabled when hit by a drunk driver in 1999.

The family accuses Sydney Archbishop George Pell of stalling their compensation claim.

Bishop Fisher said Cardinal Pell was a compassionate and generous man, but Mr Foster painted another picture. He recalled meeting the cardinal when he was archbishop of Melbourne, being offered $50,000 (the maximum compensation under the Melbourne church protocol) and being told "if you don't like it, take it to court"

The Fosters did, and in 2006 won a "sizeable" payout.

O'Donnell was never tried on the Foster case, but was convicted for other child sex crimes in 1995 and sent to jail. He died after his release in 1997.

Cardinal Pell said yesterday he had apologised to Emma Foster and her family in 1998. "My apology still stands," he said. "I repeat it. It has never been withdrawn. It has been a tragic case in every sense of the word."

Mr Foster said he had no negative feeling towards World Youth Day, but hoped the Pope would show more compassion than Bishop Fisher.

"The church can't claim to speak with any authority to society about how it should behave when the church can't behave properly and morally with its own victims," he said.

"We entrusted the Catholic system to look after our daughters and they betrayed us terribly, and continued to betray us by treating us so badly and other victims so badly."

Chris MacIsaac, president of victims advocacy group Broken Rites, said the Pope should apologise to the Fosters for Bishop Fisher's comment.

Ms MacIsaac said too many people found that processes in the Catholic Church for dealing with complaints amounted to a re-abuse, and that Bishop Fisher's remarks belittled the situation. "Emma died just a little while ago. The wounds are fresh," Ms MacIsaac said.

She said Cardinal Pell preached at the World Youth Day opening Mass about the Good Shepherd who left the 99 sheep to find the sheep that was lost. "This was a baby lamb, and did Pell go and look for it?"

Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg, who works with abuse victims, said the bishop's remark was dismissive, trivialised the impact on the young of such abuse and reinforced the view that the Catholic Church was out of touch. "It will undermine the sincerity of any papal apology and, frankly, makes it look hollow," he said.

Bishop Fisher told the briefing that abuse had no place in the church. "It's against all Christian teaching, all morality. We are trying our hardest to prevent this happening again and to bring healing and justice to the victims of these terrible cases."