Church's Booklet on Abuse More Pain for Past Victims

By Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
September 16, 2012

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/churchs-booklet-on-abuse-more-pain-for-past-victims-20120915-25z06.html

''Work of fiction'' ... the booklet.

THE archdiocese of Sydney has produced 100,000 booklets stating the Catholic Church's position on sexual abuse, which several victims said has added to their trauma.

The 16-page booklet, titled Sexual Abuse, has been distributed to parishes, Catholic agencies and schools.

About 38,000 booklets were given to children to take home from schools in the Sydney archdiocese.

The director of Catholic communications, Katrina Lee, said the booklet was overseen by the archdiocese's Professional Standards Office and was released in response to claims made by the Greens NSW upper house MP David Shoebridge.

"There has been a lot of consistent misinformation about the issue, so we decided to pull all the information together in one booklet," she said.

But Mr Shoebridge said the content of the booklet, which addresses how the Catholic Church deals with allegations of abuse, compounded the suffering of many victims, one of whom described it as "a work of fiction".

One victim said her experience of the church's Towards Healing process, the national protocol that addresses complaints of sexual, emotional and physical abuse made against clergy, was completely different from the description in the booklet.

"Throughout the process, phone calls remained unanswered, I had to wait up to eight weeks to make an appointment, I was told 'at some point I need to start to take some of the responsibility' and further abhorrent, abusive things," she said. "The investigation was held up for much time due to the priest being permitted to take overseas trips to play golf. The investigation went on for 2½ years until my health completely failed and I could no longer go on. This is not putting victims first."

Another victim took issue with the booklet's claim that victims are not silenced, saying: "This is a blatant lie as I was made to sign a document which silenced me and every other victim I know has had to [do this] as well."

Mr Shoebridge described the booklet as a whitewash that did not offer genuine help to victims.

"The processes and structures described in that booklet are so at odds with the reality of how the church deals with victims of sexual abuse that it caused a wave of pain for many people when they read it," he said. "What they are looking for is some honesty from the church and a modest degree of humility about how comprehensively they have failed so many children and families."

Mr Shoebridge will appear at a public forum to be held in Newcastle today about the need for a royal commission on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, William Wright, was invited to participate in the forum but declined to attend.