Child sexual abuse inquiry will be ‘stressful’, warns Catholic Bishop of Ballarat

By Peter Mickelburough
Herald Sun
May 17, 2015

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/child-sexual-abuse-inquiry-will-be-stressful-warns-catholic-bishop-of-ballarat/story-fni0fee2-1227358123382

Bishop Paul Bird warns the inquiry will be upsetting for survivors and their families.

THE Catholic Bishop of Ballarat has publicly apologised and warned this week’s public hearings into child sexual abuse in Ballarat would be painful and distressing.

“The hearings will be very stressful for survivors and their families and for people across our region,” Bishop Paul Bird said in a letter to local parishes.

“People will be deeply upset by the accounts of crimes against children and by the failings of church leaders in responding to these crimes.

“I encourage you to support one another through these difficult days.”

Ballarat has been home to some of the Catholic Church’s most notorious paedophiles, including priest Gerald Ridsdale, who has been in jail since 1994 over 195 child rapes and sex attacks against 54 victims as young as four, and Robert Charles Best, a Christian Brother, jailed in 2011 and guilty to more than 40 offences against dozens of students, some as young as eight.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will begin its Ballarat hearings on Tuesday. They are expected to continue for up to three weeks.

The commission will take evidence from abuse survivors, church authorities, some of those convicted of child abuse and others about the impact of child abuse on individuals, families and the community.

Bishop Bird said he hoped the commission’s work and recommendations would help all Australia, including the Catholic Church, to “deal more justly, more compassionately and more effectively”.