Belated Change in Church's Stance Was Forced on It
By Barney Zwartz
This week, in a challenging and confrontational four-hour session, Cardinal George Pell became the final witness at the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sexual abuse. The inquiry began slowly, in the face of considerable scepticism about its resources and political will, but now I congratulate the committee. It has been diligent, dedicated and determined, united in purpose and free of party politics, aided by an excellent team including Frank Vincent, QC, police adviser Mal Hyde and Crown prosecutor Claire Quin. The police Taskforce Sano attached to the inquiry has already laid new charges. By the end, the committee received 405 submissions and held 160 hearings - just under half in secret - with 45 organisations and scores of victims, families, whistleblowers, academics and experts. Now the committee retires to write its report, due by September 30. Whatever its recommendations, many of which could be confidently predicted now, it has already served a valuable role in giving a public voice to victims and holding the churches to account. Advertisement For the Catholic Church - the principal target of witnesses because the extent of abuse by its clergy so completely outweighs every other church, and whose leaders have been deeply resentful of that focus - I am in despair. Public expectations of church leaders has sunk so low it causes not a ripple when a politician - Victorian Premier Denis Napthine at the weekend - lectures them to be frank and open and apologetic. What does it say when politicians can lecture bishops on morality without complaint? Various Catholic leaders were the last to give evidence. In the carefully stage-managed church response - a tendency criticised by deputy chairman Frank McGuire, who noted that the church could unite as a single entity to defend itself but not to redress abuse - all sang from the same hymn sheet. Yes, there were ''terrible mistakes'' and ''tragic errors'' in the past, and today's leaders are fully apologetic, but the failures were all in the past by their predecessors. Today they definitely put victims first, they are personally blameless, and everything is fixed and fine. Abuse, they say, is almost entirely historical. For the victims in the gallery for each hearing - and those who could not bring themselves to attend - for the families of the dozens who killed themselves, their suffering is today and every day; it is not fixed and fine. And it is certainly not historical. Cardinal Pell was a fitting culmination for the church, defensive and defiant throughout. Like the leaders who preceded him in giving evidence, he readily utters apologies, but for the victims these are rendered scarcely credible by the litany of self-justifications, defiant demeanour and blame-shifting. Like other leaders, he said he accepted responsibility, then promptly lodged all the blame on his predecessors. He has constantly blamed the media, and on Monday provided another culprit - the state government, which should have forced the church to do more. In his press conference greeting the royal commission last November, Pell said an inquiry into the church was not needed and blamed a ''smear campaign'' by the media. The media got another serve on Monday. As part of that media, I have been writing about victims and abuse for more than a decade, urging a royal commission or government inquiry. I think I can claim a small role in helping bring about the inquiries, and I am proud of that. Other media and the tireless campaigners among the victims and their advocates played a larger role still. I am convinced that had it not been for the media - and especially the Boston Globe's searing revelations at the beginning of the century - the church would still be dismissing and silencing victims, moving offenders around and covering up to protect its ''good name''. Its appetite for change has been almost entirely imposed from outside. Tragically, the church leadership that tries to suggest the problems are now fixed is still seeking to ''manage'' the problem rather than root it out. The really important questions are off limits. I do believe leaders such as Pell are appalled by clerical abuse, but I'm afraid that, despite their protestations, they do not put the victims first. Protecting the church is still top priority; it's just the goalposts have shifted. If leaders such as Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart and Pell found giving evidence gruelling, as they clearly did, it is perhaps only a foretaste of the forensic grilling they will face when the royal commission hits its stride.
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