Ballarat Victim Hopes Inquiry Brings Peace

By Andrew Higgins
Gazette Herald
May 28, 2015

http://www.gazetteherald.com/

Gordon Hill hopes the many individuals like him who have been abused as youngsters by clergy in Ballarat will ultimately find yourself discovering a bit of little bit of peace and recognition.

The 72-year-old is glad he made the 3000km journey from Western Australia to the Victorian regional metropolis to inform the royal fee of the bodily and sexual abuse he suffered as a toddler at St Joseph’s Home.

But many survivors of the widespread abuse by clergy over many years within the Ballarat diocese really feel that even after an intense two-week public listening to, there’s nonetheless an extended solution to go.

In specific they level to the Catholic Church’s response and dealing with of abuse complaints.

“There does not appear to be something put into place and no eagerness to do something,” survivor Andrew Collins stated.

“You would assume that in any case these years that they might have had this down pat now, that procedures would have been put into place they usually’d be doing issues that have been victim-centred not church-centred.”