Nothing Perverted Catholic Church Priests Have Done Shocks Me Anymore

By Derryn Hinch
3AW
November 9, 2012

http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/blog-with-derryn-hinch/nothing-perverted-catholic-church-priests-have-done-shocks-me-anymore/20121109-292vz.html

The worst thing about the sickening headlines in the newspapers this morning – and what we saw in television last night – is that none of it shocks some of us anymore.

Nothing that perverted Catholic priests do shock me anymore. Nothing Church leaders have done, and apparently keep doing, shocks me anymore. It angers me, frustrates me, pisses me off, but it doesn’t shock me anymore.

Maybe because it is now a quarter of a century, 25 years, since I went to jail for taking on the Church over an evil priests called Michael Glennon. Now similar stories are par for the course.

Take the Page One headline in today’s Age and read the transcript of what a senior New South Wales copper said on Lateline last night. You are entitled to think for many young Australians their lives were turned into hell and for years, it seemed, nobody cared about them.

The Age story is about evidence given today to the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse by priests and cover-ups by the church.

The headline: Brothers ‘pack raped boys’. And according to Dr Wayne Chamley, from the support group Broken Rites, a group of 15 religious brothers abused more than 40 boys, including wards of the state, in homes for the mentally impaired. It went on for decades.

They may have been responsible for the deaths of two boys and other victims committed suicide. Alongside all that grim reading was the appearance on Lateline last night of a senior New South Wales policeman who finally went public because of inaction by authorities over the years.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox has spent more than 30 years as an investigator and has been at the centre of major police operations in the Newcastle-Hunter region of New South Wales.

He wrote a letter to Premier Barry O'Farrell, published in the Newcastle Herald calling for a Royal Commission into child sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

His letter sounded just like the evidence that Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton provided to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry recently.

In his letter Fox said: "Many police are frustrated by this sinister behaviour which will continue until someone stops it. I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church. None of that stops at the Victorian border.”

He talked about at least 400 victims of child sexual assault by paedophile priests in his region. Today the New South Wales Premier ordered a special inquiry into the alleged cover-ups.

It’s not enough. We’ve got that inquiry now in New South Wales. We’ve got the parliamentary inquiry in Victoria. There’s agitation by people like Hetty Johnston from Bravehearts in Queensland.

What we need is action at a federal level. I agree on this one with Neil Mitchell. Prime Minister Gillard this is now your responsibility. You can talk about building the education revolution and the need for quality schools. All that’s true, but several generations of Aussie kids were ignored by the authorities for too long. Church officials were kow-towed to for too long. Their power and influence in Police matters and politics too strong.

This time it’s not a case of us winning or the Church winning. It’s about flushing out evil, making those who covered up these crimes accountable.

And showing victims that we do care. Too late for many who killed themselves. But it must be done. And done now.

While on the issue of paedophile priests and church cover-ups, you may recall, earlier this year, when Four Corners ran a sickening story about a paedophile priest who was protected by the Catholic Church for decades.

Sexual assaults against altar boys in Moree, Narrabri and Parramatta which led to the suicides of several victims. It was called the ‘Father F Affair’. His name is still suppressed in New South Wales.

This paedophile priest was protected by the Church hierarchy for 30 years. He was first accused of sexual assault on an altar boy in 1983 - and his Archbishop was told about it. He was charged in 1988 but not defrocked until 2005 – only seven years ago.

On Four Corners he was referred to as ‘Father F’ because his name was suppressed when he appeared in court in 1988 charged with six cases of sexual intercourse without consent and five counts of indecent assault on a child. In court the priest admitted to having oral sex with young boys.

The charges were dismissed by a magistrate whom I understand had known Father F for a long time and, in my opinion, should have excused himself.

After the Four Corners program went to air, it embroiled the Archbishop of Sydney George Pell, the Secretary-General of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Brian Lucas, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Monsignor John Usher and the Vicar-General of his Diocese LOCATION OMITTED in New South Wales, NAME OMITTED. All of them were mentioned in alleged cover-ups

There has been a development. Recently NAME OMITTED was charged with 25 child sex offences against three young girls back in those days. Police charged him with repeatedly molesting three girls between 1979 and 1988.The alleged victims were as young as five.

The 59-year-old appeared in LOCATION OMITTED Local Court this week via a video link from Silverwater Correctional Centre in Sydney. He was granted bail but ordered to forfeit $230,000 if he fails to comply with some stringent bail conditions.

The court ordered NAME OMITTED to deposit $10,000 as a surety and also ordered two acceptable people each deposit $5000 sureties on his behalf. He has to report to a local police station three days a week.

He must not reside in in LOCATION OMITTED, where he has lived for many years, in the same street as a Catholic school but can visit the town for court matters, medical appointments or meetings with legal representatives.

He is not to associate with any child under the age of 16, nor approach any school property and not contact or incite anyone else to contact any of the complainants or crown witnesses. He will appear in the same court on January 23.

That old suppression order on his identity remains in effect in New South Wales.