The Royal Commission into child abuse perpertrated by some catholic clergy is not undue. That there has been abuse is undeniable and as a Catholic I am saddened - nay, horrified - that children have suffered at the hands of clergy who were supposed to care for their parishioners, big and small. Hell awaits those betrayers of Christ and His children. May Christ have the Mercy that we, as mere mortal humans with all of our frailties find hard to give to our fellows.
Those clergy failed: as did some in the Church's leadership who should have done far better. Indeed, some were complicit in covering up abuse. Some, like Cardinal (now) Pell did try hard and they have been tarred and feathered despite being quite innocent.
So some earthly Legal action is necessary, if for no other rationale than a Just and explicit accounting to the Public. But Justice and Explication is not anywhere near what this Royal Commission provides.
Pontius Pilate never had so many 'advocates' calling 'Crucify, Crucify'.
It has been a travesty. The lacking in impartiality has been astounding and the manipulation of 'evidence' may one day become the subject of legal restrictions on outrageous plays by lawyers. I shall let Geoffrey Luck make a case, make some points about the evidence and the players, and ask some pertinent questions, while I shall pour some drinks and keep my questions until later.
The Royal Commission’s Sin of OmissionNothing excuses child sexual abuse, but the question remains: has the Royal Commission's approach to "investigating" complaints lured main-chancers looking for an easy score?
In one specific instance with which I am intimately acquainted, that was most certainly the case
The Royal Commission into Child Abuse has begun its evisceration of the churches. Having started with the Roman Catholic Church on Monday, the Commission will spend the next two months demanding obeisance, forcing confessions, inviting self-flagellation and encouraging repentance for a catalogue of abuses which the churches will themselves have been required to document, categorise and analyse.
The torture of the churchmen is not in a dungeon but on live television and the rack of public opinion, the fire gleefully held to their feet by such as the atheists of the ABC.
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| Aptly Named. |
The scene was set in the opening address by Senior Counsel Assisting Gail Furness SC. Throughout the four years since its first hearing in April, 2013, she has shown herself the indomitable interrogator, prosecutor and examiner, determined to maximise every abuse while minimising every doubt.For example: the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council preferred to use the term “named individual” for those accused of abuses. In most cases claims had not been investigated, or charges laid. Ms Furness SC would have none of such neutrality.
The Royal Commission, she informed Monday’s hearing, had determined that “alleged perpetrator” more accurately described a person who had been the subject of a claim of child sexual abuse. “Perpetrator” introduced the necessary pejorative connotation.What made the news from the first day’s hearing were the dramatic numbers of abuses in Catholic parishes, schools and institutions, clearly designed to shock. But can the quoted statistics be believed?
The Church had been required to undertake a comprehensive data survey. First, it had to provide the total number of priests, brothers and sisters in all its authorities from 1950 to 2010. This number was not produced. Then it was asked for the total number of people who had alleged incidents of abuse.
This is where the much-quoted number 4444 came from. It related to 93 authorities responsible for more than 1000 separate institutions.Third, the survey identified 1,880 “alleged perpetrators”, including 500 who were unknown (presumably not named). This resulted in an inability to be confident that there was not at least some double-counting.Analysis of this raw data produced the overall figures for alleged abuse by priests and religious brothers and sisters, as well as the break-down by diocese and society. The figure for priests was 7%, which, if correct, indicates
that 93% of all Catholic priests were and are innocent of child abuse.But this in not what it seems. Those are not the figures for the whole Catholic society. They are based on the 75 authorities with priest members which the Royal Commission surveyed.
The membership spanned the sixty years from 1950 to 2010.
The ABC dramatically displayed in a graphic the abuse proportions for various orders – 20.4% for Marist Brothers, 22% for Christian Brothers, 40.4% for St John of God Brothers.Can anyone really believe these figures?
They were obtained by dividing the number of “alleged perpetrators” in each category – distributed from the 1,880 total – by the total number of brothers in the order. The raw data was not provided in her address, but tabled for the Commission, and is not, as yet anyway, publicly available.The real problem here is that the Royal Commission and its Council Assisting are happy to ply the public with raw numbers on different bases, unchecked, untested and unverified.
After four years, and in the case of the Catholic Church untold hours of evidence in pursuit of prelates, it has not authenticated the vast bulk of claims or proven “alleged perpetrators” guilty or innocent. My impression is that it doesn’t want to spoil the impact of its numbers.Despite 4444 complaints about 1880 “alleged perpetrators” the Royal Commission has heard evidence from only 261 witnesses in Catholic case studies. Yet it has generated 14,671 pages of transcript and 707 exhibits.
The pride with which these numbers are produced smacks of bureaucratic complacency, not legal fairness or certainty.If 40.4% of all St John of God Brothers were supposedly abusing the disabled children they were caring for at the Kendall Grange boys’ home in Morisset, south of Newcastle, why was there not a case study into that institution?
It must have been the highest concentration of paedophiles in Australia, perhaps the world. That failure means we don’t know the truth or the reasons.Well, the reason that Catholic order wasn’t investigated is that that flagship 40.4% figure was a fraud.
When I got hold of the Church’s basic data in documents tabled in the Commission but not available publicly until yesterday, I found the figures were sixty years old. They related to the first incidents reported in the 1950s.
In the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s the figure varied from six percent to nine percent; for the 1990s and 2000s it was zero. What’s surprising is why the Catholic Church allowed its data to be misrepresented in this damaging fashion.The problem appears to have been the selective “case study approach”. It has taken an inordinate amount of time, yet in four years has conducted enquiries into only 116 institutions. Throughout, the Commission appears to have taken complaints and claims at face value, with an emphasis on sympathy rather than truth.The case studies undertaken were based on prior information about complaints, witness availability or for their suggestion of systemic issues. But the churches were the main targets. Some 60% of all complaints in private sessions related to “faith-based” institutions, and 37% of them all came from Catholic authorities.How many of the 4444 complaints against Catholic religious were in fact valid
Is it impossible that at least some were not made in expectation of compensation? Even less is known of the many thousands of private interviews with Commission members, who are not required to test the truth of complaints. In the case of Catholic institutions, 2400 individuals claimed abuse in private sessions.The possibility that the incidence of abuse has been over-stated by the Royal Commission’s decision to take a non-critical approach to claims is a serious charge. It is made as a result of a personal experience, where the Commission declined to interest itself in a likely fraud. Where better for a conman to hide his false complaint than under the skirts of a sympathetic tribunal?I wrote a twelve-page submission, the result of a ten-month investigation. It detailed the case against a convicted criminal who had attempted a serious insurance fraud, and had tried to extort money from a Catholic school, alleging sexual abuse half a century ago. The claim was false, relying on the mists of time to obscure the lies of his invented story. He had gone on to attempt the same conman’s trick on a second school, but had been challenged and repulsed.The concern I raised with the Royal Commission was his belated complaints of abuse, including sodomy, at a third school, which circumstantially appeared to be opportunistic and fabricated.
I asked for an investigation, and offered to give evidence. The reply was that the issue fell outside the Commission’s terms of reference. My submission was merely referred to Commission officers “for their consideration”.
It can be argued that my submission related to a merely anecdotal case. But, except where they may have been investigated in case-study hearings, all the many thousands of complaints are anecdotal. Most are lacking the semblance of proof, and the Royal Commission decided from the beginning it would not try to adjudicate on their authenticity. It has taken on average, 33 years for these complainants to come forward. Is the delay in every case explained by the depth of the clainants’ trauma?During February and March, the Royal Commission will be sitting to hear Case Studies 50 to 56.
The Commissioner has a little list. Like that of the Mikado's Executioner.
After the Catholic Church, now being dealt with, it will be the turn of the Anglicans, then Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi, followed by Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Australian Christian Churches and affiliated Pentecostal churches and the Uniting Church. Each will be required to admit its sins and mouth its mea culpas. All will in fact be doing under duress the aggregation work the Commission itself should have done.
All very pertinent and direct questions, to which I can add a few. I pulled a cooling pint for Geoffrey while I contemplated what he didn't ask. Andrew Bolt jumped into the time gap to make a few points, and two others did too:
Nothing can obliterate or excuse the existence or extent of child sexual abuse in institutions throughout Australia. Those facts are undeniable. But the question will remain – did the Royal Commission’s case study approach sensationalise, rather than document, the issue? How far has it got in explaining why so many people, particularly religious, betrayed their trust and behaved unnaturally and viciously?How many of the thousands of complaints of abuse were valid? Has its recommendation of a $4.2 billion redress scheme, now adopted by the Commonwealth, lured the naturally dishonest, as well as the real victims, to take advantage of the largesse on the horizon?
I make two more points again in response to the media campaign to make Pell a scapegoat and turn the church into a smoking ruin.Where were the police in all this? We are told about 4444 complaints to the church, but why did police not act? What of complaints to them which were ignored or not fully investigated? I mention this not to excuse the church or its evil cover-ups but to point out that there was a wider culture of denial and silence that went far beyond the church.
The average gap between alleged offence and the alleged victim lodging a complaint was 33 years, according to the royal commission. And those complaints are now themselves several years old. This suggests that the church did decades ago clean up its act and crack down on pedophiles.
In fact, I understand that the Sydney diocese (reformed by Pell, among others) has not received a single complaint of abuse by a priest involving contact over the past 21 years. Attempts by the media to paint the church as unreformed and a pedophile haven are completely false.
Margaret noted
What I don't get is that the journalist Paul Bongiono was a catholic priest in the same Ballarat parish as Cardinal Pell and he says he knew nothing about Ridsdale - his word is believed but Pell's is not.
It is clear that the Christian religion is under fire. Catholics today. You can see which Protestant is next. And who isn't. I shall get to that bit in a moment.Lee answered:MargaretRidsdale was apparently closer to Bongiorno at the time than Pell - at least residentially - yet Bongiorno gets a free pass, while no benefit of the doubt is given to Pell at all by his haters.But Bongiorno is far-left and Pell conservative, so it doesn't take an Einstein to see why double standards apply.
I am not trying to minimise the issue of the numbers nor do the fair questioning we left to Geoffrey regarding percentages, but where are the comparative figures for child abusers, paedophiles etc in the society at large? From my own professional experience I would estimate at least 3-4%, and more if one could take into account homosexual abuse of minors. But that is not to be even approached by the Inquisition. Sorry, Commission.
How many child abusers are there in the ABC? Several 'entertainment' celebrities, employed by the TV companies have been jailed for child sex offences, but look as I may I have not seen any Head of Broadcasting jailed or even pilloried. If an Archbishop is to be held accountable for a priest in a town miles away, what of the head honcho of a TV production sitting in the same studio as a kiddy-groper?
And where are the Elected Ministers and salaried public officials who ran and continue to run the Departments of State that were ultimately responsible for all of the children in care and in the Institutions? Why was their not a procession of old political men and women from decades ago, assisted into the 'Court' with their zimmer frames to account for their failings? If a Cardinal and Archbishops are fair game for roasting over hot coals, why not senior civil servants and ministers?
Where are the parents of the children abused? What part did they play? It is a question one has to ask. Were they as culpable in their negligence and ignorance as the grisly crowd thinks Cardinal Pell should be? Just asking.
Let me make another point. I would fully agree with anyone who said that the miscreant priests (the few which are proven) were hypocrits. They profess Love and Kindness, Care for one another. Yet abused children. The Catholic Church was established and continues upon clear Principles of Love for one's neighbour. There is nothing in Church Doctrines that cause or compel priests to abuse children. Or anyone else for that matter. Nor do the principles of those clerics in the list of christian churches that are standing on the gallows' staircase. But where is Islam on the Commissioner's list?
They advocate 25-65 year old men taking 6 year old girls as wives; to 'save them up' until they are 9 and then force obligatory sexual intercourse upon them. Little boys can be buggered at will regardless of age or 'marriage'. This is part and parcel of the Muslim creed. It is not just for clerics but for all Mulsims. The 'moderate majority'. They would make one hell of a percentage !
But there seems to be no plan to examine them. OK, they do not have 'care' institutions. No guesses why. But they do have schools, and mosques, and families. Their daily 'practice' has cruelty and hatred all through. No 'love thy neighbour' appears in what passes for their holy books. It is more 'kill thy neighbour, especially if he is a jew or a christian and even a different sort of muslim. Kill the lot'.
But no. They don't make the Commissioner's little list. No room.
Christ weeps.
Pax.
"Nothing can obliterate or excuse the existence or extent of child sexual abuse in institutions throughout Australia. Those facts are undeniable. But the question will remain – did the Royal Commission’s case study approach sensationalise, rather than document, the issue?"
ReplyDeleteI would turn that round so it read:
"Did the Royal Commission’s case study approach sensationalise, rather than document, the issue? Yes. Those facts are undeniable. But the issue will remain – nothing can obliterate or excuse the existence or extent of child sexual abuse in institutions throughout Australia."
In fact, I'd go further than the last comment and say that no one on this Commission can be trusted. It's like the Democrats investigating the Republicans - how on earth can there be a fair trial? There can't.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why there must be rigorous examination from within the ranks, it must be seen to be thorough. There are humanist hawks who wish to bring down the Church. The Church must move, in transparent ways, to show it is cleaning and pursuing.
Justice must be seen to be done, but when the powers that inform and dispense justice are themselves biased and fail even the 'impartiality' test, Justice will be seen to be NOT done. And so it will continue to the next round and pay for the Mercedes and Yachts of many more lawyers yet.
DeleteIt's a shame this isn't more wildly known. Thank you for spreading the facts. I am curious, Gerard Henderson confronted Cahill in late 2017 about the 2504 abuse complaints made regarding the uniting church. Cahill equivocated and responded vaguely, then stopped responding, about a moth later the Commission instructed the uniting church to revise its statistics to only around 400. They said this was by holding it to the same standard as the Catholic Church, but in case of the uniting church accusations/complaints would now have to be substantiated while the Commission claimed this was outside its terms of reference when confronted about abuse accusations made against the Catholic Church by someone with a history of making false accusations. Do you think Cahill and the Commission actively encouraged thr uniting church to hide the extent of abuse in its ranks, since this undermines attacks on celibacy and the like?
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