An Unspeakable Betrayal of Trust: One Parent's Journey
By Chrissie Foster
It has been quite a journey, but this week we arrived. The tabling in State Parliament on Wednesday of the inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations report, with its findings and recommendations, was an emotionally charged occasion. Morning and afternoon saw both the upper and lower houses of Parliament silent and intent as each of the six Family and Community Development Committee members read their speeches. Every one of them passionate, resolute and united in their damning of the Catholic Church and the atrocities it bestowed on generation after generation of Victorian children. Their collective disgust at evidence presented before them reverberated throughout the Parliament and every person who listened. Tears were shed as the strength and clarity of their words damned an organisation that wore sheep's clothing in public yet, in reality, tolerated, hid and protected criminal clergy who never tired of their lustful crimes and were left unchecked to continue molesting and raping boys and girls. There were no stops put in place, no checks, and no punishment for these criminal clergy, just further access to the bodies of our defenceless children. This week, that all changed. Our Parliament - our elected representatives - did our society proud: they listened, they believed and they acted. Georgie Crozier, chairwoman of the committee, spoke with strength and commitment as she described key recommendations then placed her hand on a tied bundle of pages to be handed officially to Parliament - a piece of history happening before our eyes. Andrea Coote, MP, stood and spoke with force and passion, also slamming the Catholic Church for its betrayal of society's children, which caused untold pain, loss and destruction. MP David O'Brien, emotion barely contained, raged at the disgraceful actions of the church, reading in alphabetical order more than 30 towns in the Ballarat dioceses that suffered the horrendous effects of paedophile priests. At times struggling to speak, he delivered a speech that was applauded for a long time by those in the public gallery. The condemnation continued later with MP Frank McGuire, whose poignant, clear and heartfelt words touched us all. Nick Wakeling, MP, spoke movingly of his experience of listening to victims, and how it had affected him. And MP Bronwyn Halfpenny also struggled to say the words that described what she had learnt and its impact on the lives of those who had suffered. The committee's findings and recommendations, contained in the two-volume, almost 1000-page document, are the key to change and a safer future for children. The committee believes it has got to the heart of the many issues that have allowed the Catholic Church and other religious and non-government organisations to avoid accountability through inadequate laws and non-binding moral obligations. Premier Denis Napthine has assured us that the recommendations of the Betrayal of Trust report will be acted upon immediately, instead of after the usual six-month waiting period. On Wednesday night, Archbishop Denis Hart spoke on national television, saying the church would co-operate fully with the implementation of the recommendations. But the past has shown that no matter how many times the Catholic Church announces it will co-operate, it later falls short of doing so. On Thursday morning, the church's so-called Truth, Justice and Healing Council (TJHC) issued a media release stating the Catholic Church would support a national redress scheme, rather than the recommended Victorian Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal scheme. How quickly they turn. As was recently exposed in the media, the TJHC says nothing without first being authorised by Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop Hart and the other bishops. It is nothing but a front for the church hierarchy. For the church leadership to repeatedly reiterate its proposal for a national scheme only hours after the same church hierarchy publicly supported the Victorian inquiry's recommendations should be taken as an affront by the Victorian Parliament. Our Parliament has responded passionately and powerfully to the evidence it heard from the people of Victoria, and the committee members have acted on this evidence with their findings and recommendations. One very important area to all victims - the reassessing of 16 years of church-settled cases, some settled under pressure for as little as $2400 for lifelong damage - has been left in the hands of the Catholic Church. In the words of the report: ''The committee considers that the willingness of organisations to review these existing settlements will be a measure of how genuine their undertakings are to comply with the inquiry recommendations and their implementation.'' Archbishop Hart, are you willing to do this? Are you genuine?
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.