Faith in the church was lost, faith in justice returns to Ballarat

By Konrad Marshall
Age
May 19, 2015

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/faith-in-the-church-was-lost-faith-in-justice-returns-to-ballarat-20150519-gh4y4r.html

Protesters outside Ballarat Magistrates Court, where the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse is sitting. Photo by Pat Scala

Cold rain fell heavy and hard on the roof of the former church hall next to the Ballarat Magistrates' Court.

 These days it is a restaurant, on Tuesday it provided overflow seating for those who came to listen to day one of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse in this small regional town west of Melbourne.

It was a strange place to hear the sins of the clergy. The stained-glass window in the sanctuary had been appropriately covered.

Ostensibly this was to mitigate the glare bouncing off the screen of closed-circuit camera feed from courtroom five next door, but you had to imagine the curtain also served to mute the mockery the evidence gave to these religious surroundings..

This was the first day of up to three weeks of testimony from victims, perpetrators and experts about the scope and impact of a period of cruel and systemic abuse, subsequent neglect and shunning, resultant loss of faith and connectedness. 

And so sat victims, fathers, brothers, mothers and sisters, listening to the catalogue of crimes committed, aided and abetted by other Fathers, Brothers, Mothers and Sisters, Monsignors, Bishops and Cardinals, and the concomitant substance abuse, post traumatic stress and endemic suicide that followed.

The audience was sometimes moved to murmur and groan, some whimpered, shaking their heads and clenching fists to hear what happened inside neighbouring rural presbyteries and parishes, boarding houses and orphanages.

What happened was the emergence, detection and concealment of a vile paedophile ring within the vast Catholic diocese, which today comprises 124 church communities in 51 parishes in the western half of Victoria, bounded by the South Australian border, the Murray River and the Southern Ocean. 

The flavour of the epidemic is reflected in the last names of those who committed evil acts – such as Ridsdale and Best – and in the leaders who are accused of offering wilfully inadequate responses – Mulkearns and McKinnon.

The 28th public hearing into institutional child sex abuse is an investigation into an overwhelmingly Catholic community – a closed one where the clergy was tied to most local financial, political and social institutions.

The commission has heard how reach and influence made it possible for children to be taken advantage of so easily in sick bays and church pews, caravans and confessional boxes, on sleepovers and car trips, school grounds and homes.

Sitting in the church hall we heard how brutalisation and buggery were euphemistically characterised as "inappropriateness" and "interfering", and followed by "counselling" and "treatment", and how written complaints and whispers were met with suspensions and ostracism.

"Treatment" amounted to little more than relaxation exercises at cosy retreats.

Warnings amounted to a threat of banishment "to the missions".

Mostly, however, offenders were moved on, sometimes more than once – one went from Horsham to Inglewood to Camperdown, Mildura, Swan Hill, Warrnambool, Edenhope and Mortlake – and offended at each stop.

These hearings have multiple goals: there is the catharsis that comes from a widespread airing of sins, potential investigations from new evidence, and the knowledge that enhances our understanding of predators and may be able to be used to prevent such exploitation happening again.

Since the commission began, 270 people on average have made contact every week in 11,000 letters and 21,000 phone calls. In Ballarat, the commission will hear from 17 men who were abused,  just a few among the many.