AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail
Parents’ anger at Sydney Archbishop’s note sent home with Catholic schoolchildren about horrific abuse being uncovered at royal commission that says some criticism is ‘unfair’
By JOHN CARNEY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
A letter that’s been taken home by Catholic school kids in Sydney in an attempt to put parents’ minds at ease as the on-going Royal Commission into sex child abuse inquiry continues this week has not got the positive response the church hoped for.
Called ‘Speaking the Truth in Love’ it is written by the Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher and is also published on the Archdiocese of Sydney website. The letter refers to the disturbing evidence emerging from the inquiry in Ballarat in recent weeks.
While making it clear that like everyone else he feels ‘disillusioned, contaminated and shamed’ by what has come out of the commission, his claims that the church has been treated unfairly has left parents angry and feeling as if the Archbishop is backing the church’s former responses to allegations of sexual abuse.
‘Many things are being said about the church at the moment some of them fair, some of them not so fair. It is alleged, for instance, that we engaged in self-protective legal evasions,’ the Archbishop wrote.
Debrief Daily website reports the letter has stirred up anger among some Catholics in Sydney with one parent calling it ‘Satanic Verses’, others have described it as ‘a real kick in the teeth to victims’, while others saw it as a sign that the Catholic Church is still in denial.
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