This Human Rights post is part of Blog Action Day on 16 October 2013. It is a cross-post from Global Voices Online.
Two sisters were repeatedly raped by their parish priest in an Australian primary school. One later committed suicide. The other became a binge drinker and is disabled after being hit by a car. Their parents want laws to make the Catholic Church look after victims properly. Their mother told the story in her book Hell On The Way To Heaven.
Since its publication in 2010, action is finally being taken. There are currently three government inquiries in Australia into institutional responses to sexual abuse of children.
As Clerical Whispers reported in May 2013, the State of New South Wales investigation followed police whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s allegations of Catholic church cover-ups in the Hunter Valley region.
In the State of Victoria, the Family and Community Development Committee of parliament has the task of reporting:
…on the processes by which religious and other non-government organisations respond to the criminal abuse of children by personnel within their organisations
The committee was set up after admissions by the Catholic hierarchy of forty suicides among 620 victims of child sexual abuse by its clergy. It is due to report in November 2013.
Then Prime Minister Julia Gillard established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in late 2012. The commission is examining:
…how institutions with a responsibility for children have managed and responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse.
…any private, public or non-government organisation that is, or was in the past, involved with children, including government agencies, schools, sporting clubs, orphanages, foster care, and religious organisations.
Despite the broad brush of the terms of reference, the Catholic church has taken the brunt of public criticism so far. In particular, the Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell has been the centre of the controversy for his approach to offenders and victims over an extended period. His appearance at the Victorian committee in May 2013 created a storm when he admitted church cover-ups.
Ian Richardson’s reaction was typical of the twitterverse:
#Australia‘s Cardinal “I Knew Nothing” #Pell digs deep hole for himself and #Catholic church at child abuse enquiry: http://t.co/8HtxEH3ka8
— Ian D. Richardson (@ian_richmed) May 27, 2013
Rock in the grass was incensed by the Cardinal’s moralising:
Cardinal George Pell: An embarrassing example of clerical blindness when it comes to child abuse. http://t.co/kiuMPS2vMx“
— rockinthegrass (@rockinthegrass) May 29, 2013
Sam Butler made the inevitable comparison with Rupert Murdoch’s evidence in 2011 to the British parliamentary committee concerning the phone hacking scandal:
Pell’s “apology” is every bit as laughably insincere as Murdoch’s “most humble day of my life” quip: http://t.co/s5sEXoMA5U
— Sam Butler (@samsonjbutler) May 28, 2013
It was just one of a multitude of tweets linking to well-respected journalist David Marr’s report for the Guardian.
Meanwhile Cartoonist Jon Kudelka had his usual eye for The Details:
Cartoon – The Details. Courtesy Jon Kudelka
At The Conversation blog Judy Courtin assessed Pell’s apology:
If we were to rate his performance as an actor with his apology he would have just passed as an actor. The apology, along with any empathy or compassion, was entirely lacking.
Subsequently David Marr has written an in-depth essay for the September Quarterly magazine: The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell (Essay 51):
He [Pell] knows children have been wrecked. He apologises again and again. He even sees that the hostility of the press he so deplores has helped the church face the scandal. What he doesn’t get is the hostility to the church. Whatever else he believes in, Pell has profound faith in the Catholic Church. He guards it with his life. Nations come and go but the church remains.
Jeremy von Einem’s tweet is representative of the general reaction to Marr’s essay:
Just read David Marr’s @QuarterlyEssay piece on George Pell. Shameful covering up of sex abuse in the Catholic church. Disgusting to read.
— Jeremy von Einem (@jvoneinem) October 5, 2013
John Lord captured the revulsion and the anger that many readers felt:
Whilst reading it I had to stop many times and reflect on the enormity of the sins of the fathers. More than once I shed a tear whilst uttering the word, bastards.
But this essay is as much about Pell (I don’t feel the need to be particularly aware of protocol and use his title) the man as it is about child abuse. When all is stripped back we see a man of very little love for flock but great love for the institution of church, the privileges that come with it and the power it commands. Consequently Pell is adored by the church but despised by the people.
Cardinal Pell responded to the essay with a written statement:
A predictable and selective rehash of old material. G.K.Chesterton said: ‘A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; a bad novel tells us the truth about its author’. Marr has no idea what motivates a believing Christian.
The Prince has its critics. Andrew Hamilton is consulting editor at Eureka Street, the online publication of the Australian Jesuits. In his analysis Marring the Cardinal’s image he sees the essay as “elegant” but “unfair”:
The limitations of Marr’s account are the obverse of its virtues. It is not a dispassionate judgment but a prosecution brief. It sifts Pell’s motives and words but not those of his critics, and simplifies complexities.
Kate Edwards at Australia Incognita is a critic of Cardinal Pell but thinks Marr missed the ‘Real Story’:
The article provides no new insights on the Cardinal’s various disastrous interactions with victims and the laity in relation to the scandal; no new insights into just why he and many others in the Church were so reluctant to listen or act. To me that seems a great shame.
Despite being the central player in the sordid history of abuse and cover-up, the Catholic Church was not first case study off the rank at the Royal Commission public hearings. That dishonour went to the Scouts, reinforcing a long-held stereotype.
The Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council has made a lengthy submission to the Commission’s Towards Healing processes. Meanwhile, an appearance at the inquiry by Cardinal Pell is eagerly awaited by both critics and supporters.
Outside the Victorian inquiry, support group CLAN (Care Leavers Australia Network) spoke for people brought up in “care”:
Care Leavers Australia Network outside Victoria’s Parliament House. Courtesy CLAN website
The Royal Commission is expected to take several years to complete its investigations and make recommendations to the Federal government.
[For more on this story at AIMN, please see John Lord's The Prince. Faith, Abuse and George Pell (7 Oct 2013)]
