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	Woman Says Rape Has Ruined Her Life By Lindy Laird The Northern Advocate July 19, 2008 http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3779171&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection= As speculation mounts over whether the Pope will deliver an apology to victims of sexual abuse, a Whangarei woman is among those waiting for an apology from the Catholic Church. Ann - who for legal reasons cannot be identified - said she had lived for more than 50 years with the trauma of being raped by a priest in 1956. She grew up in Catholic orphanages in the South Island and said she had been raped by a visiting priest at a church home. She was 15 years old at the time. Ann's case is now being investigated by police. She was helped to take that step by former police commissioner John Jamieson, head of the Catholic Church's national office of professional standards, which was set up to look into cases that victims felt had not been acted on appropriately in the past. Whangarei and Christchurch police confirmed the case was under investigation. The fact that police are taking her claims seriously is a relief to Ann, who said for many years the church ignored her allegations - adding to her pain. When it did come, a papal apology would be long-awaited acknowledgment that many children suffered at the hands of church representatives, Ann said. Until she had an apology from the head of the Catholic Church she was unable to enter a state of forgiveness and live in grace. "We were just innocent children but our innocence was stolen from us. I was raped body and soul," Ann said. "I have tried to go back to church. I want to go to church and be a practising Catholic but I can't go in and sit there. It all just wells up again and floods over, and the memory and pain becomes too much to bear. "I wouldn't send my own children to Catholic schools because I was terrified the same thing could happen to them. I still have my faith in God and no one can take that away from me, but they did destroy my faith in humanity." Ann would prefer an apology in person, possibly during a private audience with a small group representing the many affected. A precedent for a similar personal apology was set during the Pope's visit to the US earlier this year. "But we have been shut out, again," Ann said, citing requests made to New Zealand bishops to arrange a papal meeting for the "lost children". Tales of sexual and mental abuse at the hands of clergy have become so common they now hardly make the headlines. Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Australia has drawn hundreds of thousands of pilgrims but also turned a spotlight on the church's sexual abuse record. The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, fuelled speculation three weeks ago by saying he would welcome an apology by the Pope to victims of child sexual abuse in church agencies. Cardinal Pell said that if the Pope chose to do it, it would be "a welcome contribution" at World Youth Day in Sydney. However, the day came and went on Thursday without the gesture being made.
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