AUSTRALIA
The Australian
EILEEN PIPER
The Australian
February 13, 2017
Don’t be fooled by the Catholic Church’s supposed grief and regret at the royal commission into child abuse as the archbishops give evidence. Don’t be fooled by their crocodile tears or their so-called quest to heal. These manufactured gestures mean nothing. I know, because the church continues to refuse to have anything to do with me, the elderly mother of one of the horrifically abused victims.
The year before my daughter Stephanie killed herself, she told me that she’d been repeatedly sexually abused as a teenager by a Catholic priest.
The Catholic Church did everything in its power to silence and deny this abuse.
Then, a few days after her suicide, a member of the church turned to me and said: “Don’t worry. God will forgive her.” I threw him out of my house and turned my back on my faith.
I’m now 92 and I have one mission I’m determined to fulfil before my time is up: I want a proper, personal apology from Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart and Pallottine leader Father Eugene San.
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