AUSTRALIA
Hawkesbury Gazette
Justine Doherty
14 Feb 2017
THE findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have reached deep into the hearts of Catholics, revealing horrors that are difficult to face. The Gazette asks Hawkesbury’s Catholic institutions for their responses to the crisis.
Last week the commission hearings revealed that between 1980 and 2015, 4444 people alleged they were abused as children in more than 1000 Catholic institutions, with 1880 perpetrators identified.
It was also revealed that 40 per cent of St John of God Brothers have been implicated in abuse claims. With two St John of God-branded hospitals in our district and several Catholic schools as well, the Gazette asked St John of God Healthcare and the Diocese of Parramatta to respond to the commission’s revelations.
A St John of God Health Care spokesperson told the Gazette “St John of God Health Care was established by the Sisters of St John of God who came to Australia from Ireland in 1895”.
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