Abuse Victim Validated by Inquiry

By Elle Watson
Maitland Mercury
August 3, 2013

http://www.maitlandmercury.com.au/story/1679985/abuse-victim-validated-by-inquiry/?cs=171

During the past six weeks those living in the aftermath of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church have been confronted with a stream of devastating evidence.

Evidence proving that – for at least 60 years – the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese carried the knowledge that some priests posed a risk to children.

So with these proceedings now drawing to a close, the question remains: do the survivors feel validated?

ELLE WATSON reports.

Four decades after Peter Gogarty was abused by defrocked priest James Fletcher, the Vacy man stood before a highly-publicised inquiry and cross-examined the former head of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

The date was July 15, 2013. And Mr Gogarty made history.

“I was nervous about it but I was absolutely determined to do it,” Mr Gogarty said.

“It was a significant and symbolic thing to do because here was someone, not a barrister, asking a bishop (Michael Malone) the questions.”

Mr Gogarty is not a solicitor or a barrister but held his own in a crowded room of senior counsel and a packed public gallery.

At the heart of his line of questioning he wanted to get across the human cost of systemic abuse.

“Bishop Malone, in your experience, having met and talked to victims of James Patrick Fletcher could you tell the Commissioner, in your observation, how child sexual assault has affected those people?”

The bishop responded: “Oh, yes, there’s a whole raft of ways in which the effect has taken place.

The victims with whom I met, and I met with many of them on many occasions, they were extremely . . . extremely traumatised by the experience.

They felt they had been betrayed because a priest had done this to them.

They were also conscious of their families, maybe yes, maybe not, believing them were they to come forward to their families.

So a number of them kept silence for a number of years precisely for that reason.

A number of the victims also found it hard to hold down a job.

They also found it hard to hold down relationships and all of these things created a very vulnerable sort of person who was badly traumatised by the abuse.”

More than two weeks on, at the finalisation of public hearings, Mr Gogarty said he was upbeat and feeling validated by the Special Commission of Inquiry that he fought to have for years.

“I do [feel validated], I hope I don’t sound like a smart alec by saying it but a lot of this I have been saying for years,” Mr Gogarty said.

He said evidence put before the commission shows that “in one form or another” the church documented abuse in records and processes dating back to at least the 1950s.

“It [the church] sought to look after itself over children – the church knew about this for a long time,” Mr Gogarty said.

He said he was disappointed by the apparent lack of memory of some witnesses which has “knocked around” victims and their families.

“There’s a Sergeant Schultz attitude of ‘I know nothing’ – it’s incredulous, it defies belief.”

Mr Gogarty believes there is still not enough victim recognition by the church.

“The ‘What would Jesus do?’ approach is absent from the institution that represents Jesus on earth – he’d be mortified? Where’s the compassion,” Mr Gogarty said.

The Special Commission of Inquiry focused only on the church’s dealings with fathers James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden but Mr Gogarty believes there is scope to investigate a number of other priests who have committed crimes against children in the Hunter.

“Honestly I don’t think we’ll know the full extent of it,” he said.

“And that’s not a criticism of the inquiry, I believe those involved have done a thorough job and have not put a foot wrong.

“[Because of this inquiry] the community’s eyes are being opened to the extent of this issue, people are now aware it could have been their mother of father, aunty or uncle who was abused. The consciousness of it has really been raised.”

Mr Gogarty is now waiting for the Special Commissioner Margaret Cunneen to hand down her findings later next month.

“I want the whole world to know, particularly members of the Catholic Church, you are not above the law,” Mr Gogarty said.

“And if you conceal a crime you are committing a crime, if you move a priest to another parish where he inflicts more grief and suffering you are complicit in that crime.”