“Many survivors around the world feel betrayed [comment]”, SNAP Australia, SNAPAustralia.org, Nicky Davis, September 28, 2015.

SNAP Australia
September 29, 2015

http://www.snapaustralia.org/NickyDavis%5bcomment%5d-28Sep2015.html

Many survivors around the world feel betrayed, not reassured, by Pope Francis' words during his US PR exercise.

We feel silenced and excluded when he speaks weasel words about us and how his institution has and will deal with the criminals within that institution who commit, enable or cover up horrific crimes against defenceless children.

We feel overpowered and disheartened that media around the world repeat his meaningless promises without reference to the reality of survivors' experiences, and honour him on the basis of this misleading façade.

We feel Francis' church still regards abused children as the wrongdoers, because instead of suffering in silence and neglect we insist on our right to speak about what happened to us, and to demand justice and healing.

We feel Francis' church still regards institutional officials, institutional bank accounts and institutional reputation as the real victims, and those most deserving of compassion.

We are horrified by Francis lecturing the UN and US congress about human rights, while ignoring the well researched and reasonable recommendations of both the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and UN Committee Against Torture, which defended our human rights against abuse and re-abuse by church officials.

We are still waiting for any real accountability for the criminals who devastate the lives not just of primary victims, but also of families and communities whose own lives are shattered, and who have to watch their loved ones suffer terribly, and often die far too early.

We are still waiting for Francis' church to stop blaming, bullying, misleading, silencing, ostracising, neglecting and threatening us, to stop hiding the truth and important evidence from us, and to stop lying about how they treat us.

We are still waiting for the reassuring promises of change to be anything other than a fantasy to distract the gullible.

We have heard similar promises from Pope after Pope, yet those words protected nobody except the criminals.

Many survivors no longer respond to such empty claims with hope that it will one day be true.

Many survivors have reached the point that we believe misleading words are all that Francis has to offer, while evidence mounts that Francis is as much a part of the problem, not the solution, as his predecessors.

In Australia we have seen Francis' Vatican refuse to deliver evidence about crimes committed on Australian soil against Australian children to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

We have seen the highest ranking Australian church official, Cardinal Pell, given a Vatican posting which confers a claim of diplomatic immunity, and only agree to return to give evidence to the Royal Commission in person as a result of media criticism, and not because of any understanding that survivors deserve at least that much respect.