A couple of months back I watched the confronting US Doco "Deliver us from Evil" ( http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/deliver-us-from-evil/ ) which documents the sexual abuse committed by one Catholic priest in particular, and the Church hierarchy's lack of action over decades, allowing the priest to constantly re-offend as they transferred him between parishes, despite their knowledge of his actions on each occasion. Amazingly, over 100,000 children in the US alone have now made accusations of sexual abuse by clergy. To this day the Church refuse to release information to the Police citing confidentiality, while the Police have over 500 investigations underway into sexual abuse by clergy in California alone. Even more amazingly, the Church will soon begin paying the former priest (who is now a free man living in Ireland) a pension. Only in America? Unfortunately, no. Last night's 4 Corners, entitled "Unholy Silence" ( http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/06/28/3535079.htm ) documented a remarkably similar case in Australia. A former priest, (known only as Father F for legal reasons) has been allegedly abusing young boys since the 1980s. The Church became aware of allegations in 1983, but refused to speak to other potential victims and instead employed Australia's top QC to defend the priest against new charges, then transferred him to another parish where he allegedly reoffended. In 1992 he admitted to the charges in an interview with 3 other clergy, but the Church did not pass this information to Police.
In writing a report about the interview, one of the clergy made no mention of the effect on the victims but lamented the bad publicity that the events would have on the Church, should the victim(s) go public! Several of those victims are now dead, having committed suicide.
The former priest is a free man to this day, living in Armidale and working with children.
4 corners also documented other cases where Australian priests accused of sexual abuse have been relocated to overseas posts and refused to return to Australia on the direction of the church hierarchy.
The state of Victoria has begun an enquiry into sexual abuse by Churches/religious groups. That's not enough. There needs to be a Commonwealth Royal Commission to investigate this issue, with full powers to get past the coverups.
|
