Where to Now? OR: Keeping up the MOMENTUM

By Lewis Blayse
Lewisblayse.net
August 4, 2013

http://lewisblayse.net/2013/08/02/where-to-now-or-keeping-up-the-momentum/

Pope Francis collects the Brazilian “bad priest files”

Both the NSW government enquiry and the Victoria Parliamentary enquiry were primarily concerned with the Catholic Church. Cardinal George Pell is of the opinion that child sexual abuse enquiries are part of some sort of plot to discredit his organisation.

Now that these two enquiries have been completed, except for the final reports, attention will return to the Royal Commission itself, which covers all organisations interacting with children. However, it will not hold public hearings for at least another two months.

In the meantime, this blog will continue to cover background and related issues. One important component is the issue of the old-style children’s homes. This has seen several state and federal enquiries in the past, but the approach has been fairly disjointed. The series of articles on individual homes will continue during the next two months, with a view to identifying gaps and common points from previous data on the issue. Hopefully, this will encourage more people to put in submissions to the Royal Commission.

Another aspect deserving of attention, is that of gaining maximum public attention and understanding of the issues involved. Sometimes this may even include public demonstrations of various kinds. Some methods of doing this will be discussed.

With such as broad coverage of potential organisations being scrutinized, there is the very real possibility that some sections will not be covered because they are less well known. The issue of paedotourism is one example. Another is Internet paedophiles. Some attention can be given to these, to reinforce activity of people concerned with these particular issues.

As the blog continues, it will contain more and more information for both those researching some particular issue, and provide a real-time historical account for future studies. While only one person’s view, it may well be that others will do something similar to give a richer history of the process currently underway.

The blog will continue for the duration of the Royal Commission process.

While Australia remains the central focus, occasionally some coverage will be undertaken of developments in other countries, where lessons may be learnt which will help people here draw up their own submissions. Hopefully, also, a service can be given to people in other countries who may be interested in having their own national enquiries.

Finally, if anyone has ideas about individual issues which could be covered, they are invited to make contact as they wish. Any and all material from this site is freely available, with or without attribution. Best wishes to all of you who are engaged in this very important activity of combating child sexual abuse.