Freethinker helps abuse victim gain support in lawsuit against a Catholic priest in Australia

By Barry Duke
Freethinker (UK)
March 04, 2014

http://freethinker.co.uk/2014/03/04/freethinker-helps-abuse-victim-gain-support-in-lawsuit-against-a-catholic-priest-in-australia/

Father Knowles was briefly back in the pulpit. Photo: Angela Wylie

Jennifer Herrick at 22, a couple of months after the first assault, with her parents. Photo by Nick McKenzie

LAST January we carried a shocking report about the reinstatement of a Catholic priest who had been put on “administrative leave” for 16 months after he was accused of abusing a young disabled woman in Australia over a period of 14 years.

Father Tom Knowles, to the horror his victim, Jennifer Herrick, and others who had suffered abuse at the hands of priests, was returned to active ministry at St Francis’ Church in Melbourne.

After we reported that the Catholic Church had reinstated Knowles because he was now “committed to a prolonged, regular and very intensive and personally confronting programme of therapy” an unidentified woman posted a comment beneath the report.

It contained information Herrick believed could be of considerable use to her. She contacted me, and asked whether there was any possibility of being put in touch with the woman.

As I had the person’s email address I was able to establish the contact the victim sought, and recently Herrick emailed me to say that she is now “in constant contact with the woman” who wishes to remain anonymous.

She has thus been an immense support to me because she understands his character and has witnessed it over a long period of time. I tell you this so you know how important your website is for, in this instance, affording the victim about whom the article spoke, finding support in unexpected places!

She added:

I also want to tell you, Barry – and I’m sure you will be pleased to know – that I recently have taken out civil court proceedings against Tom Knowles and the trustees and the still-living provincial leaders of his Order (who ought to have been aware of what he was doing, being responsible for him) in the Supreme Court of NSW.

Herrick also pointed out that so great was the outrage over the priest’s reinstatement that the Catholic Church was forced into an embarrassing backflip. On February 24, 2013, The Age reported that the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne had removed Knowles from one of Australia’s busiest churches.

Senior church official Father Graeme Duro had defended Father Knowles’ return to active ministry, stating that the priest had taken:

Responsibility for his actions and it was appropriate for him to return to public ministry.

We express our deep regret at the hurt suffered by the complainant and the harm Fr Knowles’s behaviour has caused his fellow religious and the church; we believe everything … to alleviate the complainant’s suffering and to address Fr Knowles’s responsibility for his actions has been done and it is appropriate for him to return to public ministry.

This, if anything, increased public fury and within weeks, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart formally withdrew Father Knowles’:

Faculties to engage in any public ministry within the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

Hart is believed to have received letters from concerned Catholic parishioners after Father Knowles’ reinstatement was made public.

Herrick was quoted in The Age as saying that, while she ‘’believed it was just’’ that Father Knowles had been stood down, she was “still incredulous’’ that she had not been told about it immediately by the Church. She was only informed after seeking confirmation from church authorities after hearing a rumour about his removal.

Herrick was 19 years old and suffering from bilateral congenital hip dysplasia – which caused her to walk with an highly abnormal gait – when Father Knowles, who was her family priest, began cultivating a relationship with her and her extended family.

Three years later, the priest initiated sexual intercourse with her. She was a virgin at the time.  The sexual relationship continued for 14 years and Ms Herrick later described it to church investigators as abusive and exploitative conduct.

She said that the sex was often hurried, due to the need for secrecy, at times aggressive and often painful, due to factors related to her disability.

Herrick made it clear that she only made the case public when, after 18 months of dealing with ecclesiastical authorities, the Church’s Towards Healing programme did not bring about a just end to the matter. In 2011, after she lodged a formal complaint, a confidential church investigation found the priest’s conduct to be “highly inappropriate”.

This relationship caused her to withdraw from friends and family and she grew increasingly anxious, ultimately having a breakdown and losing a promising career as a high school teacher.

You feel you can’t say anything to anybody because he was a priest. When a young, disabled woman is caught up with a priest, you are trapped. I was denied an opportunity to develop normally as a young adult. I could never test out other relationships or have a family. It was a personal and pastoral betrayal.

Herrick’s psychologist, Ana Grant, said the priest’s conduct had caused the woman serious post-traumatic stress disorder.

A professor of theology at the Australian Catholic University, Neil Ormerod, believes there may be hundreds of similar cases yet to emerge.

He said he suspected the number of adults abused or in inappropriate relationships with their priests might be greater than the child abuse scandal.

In September 2011, Father Knowles’ superior, Graeme Duro, wrote to Herrick acknowledging that she had:

Endured a great deal of emotional and psychological pain and suffering and that Fr Knowles’s inappropriate conduct was to your detriment.

Professor Ormerod, who has supported Ms Herrick, said that in reinstating Father Knowles the church sent a “signal to the victim that her situation wasn’t serious” when in fact the abuse of trust by the priest had been extensive.