AUSTRALIA
The Standard
Clare Quirk
5 Apr 2017
ADVOCATES for sexual assault victims say recent comments by the Catholic Bishop of Ballarat demonstrate the church’s focus is on protecting itself rather than the crimes committed on south-west children.
Bishop Paul Bird refuted calls to remove plaques which include the name of disgraced bishop Ronald Mulkearns. He told The Standard it was important to accurately record historical events where the community had gathered to celebrate with Bishop Mulkearns.
South West Centre Against Sexual Assault manager Mary Clapham said the bishop’s comments had illustrated the difficulty the church had in acknowledging the harm the clergy had done over many decades. She said part of the problem of sexual abuse within institutions was that the hierarchy was much more focused on protecting the church rather than acknowledging the harm and criminality done.
“There is no mention of the children, and many who are now adults, who have been impacted by the sexual offending that has occurred and what’s particularly disappointing is the comments about ‘lets look at the whole person here and remember the good’. I would think that people who have been impacted by sexual abuse would find that quite disturbing.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.