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The Forum > Article Comments > Facing the truth ... > Comments

Facing the truth ... : Comments

By Amanda Gearing, published 31/8/2007

The scale of the problem of pedophile clergy in Australian churches needs to be squarely faced by state and federal parliaments.

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"I think we can be quite certain that the AMA would strongly object to being asked to pay financial compensation to the victim of sexual abuse by a doctor."

Thats quite a different situation. Doctors are simply members of
AMA, not employees. Priests are employed by the Catholic Church,
no different to say staff who work for McDonalds. If they cause
others harm whilst working for McDonalds, it costs the company
bigtime. When those staff got it wrong in the US, I remember
a case, where a woman in her 70s spilt boiling hot coffee in her
lap. It cost McDonalds 10 million$.

The Catholic Chuch is a hugely wealthy organisation. I doubt
if those funds come from rattling the tin to the congregation.
More like large legacies of real estate which have been left
to the church. Check out how much real estate that many religions
own, its a huge business!

Hopefully what the various religions have learnt out of these huge
payouts, is that cover ups are not worth it and only perpetuate
the problem. Better to come clean when the problem first surfaces,
then sweep everything under the carpet for years, or it will
cost them a great deal more.
Posted by Yabby, Friday, 31 August 2007 8:32:32 PM
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David,

You're right when you say that exploitation and physical abuse are not just Church problems, but when the Church is responsible for allowing the activity to go unchecked in its own domain, given what it professes, it is the biggest hypocrite of all.

The only way to solve the problem is to open up the cloistered world of the Church (as well as all other well-protected, powerful and secretive places) to scrutiny. As long as such places exist, the predators will always have somewhere to hide. A bit of strong leadership from Church and society leaders would also not go astray, although I wouldn't hold my breath waiting. I suspect the only saving grace will be when the Church has its own version of an "Andrew Johns" moment, when it gets sprung doing the wrong thing once too many times and realises that it's better off coming clean than continuing to hide such activities.
Posted by RobP, Friday, 31 August 2007 9:49:13 PM
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Interesting to note that Bishop (retired) Geoffrey Robinson has just published a book called "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus", where he grapples with these issues. The speech he gave at the launch of the book is here http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=3413

Robinson is well-qualified to write on abuse as he authored the Towards Healing document, that guides the Australian Catholic church's response to allegations of sexual abuse. Well, except for Melbourne, where Archbishop Pell brought in his own proceedures.

Robinson's book has been well-received in the mainstream presss and in portions of the religious press. But it's provoked a storm of protest in some Catholic circles, for example http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=53109 (some of these ranters would be right at home on OLO).

I can't really comment on the book as I haven't read it, but Robinson obviously feels that the Catholic Church's response to abuse claims is symptomatic of a deeper malaise. He feels that entrenched interests in the Church would rather ignore the problem than actually tackle it, I suspect he might agree with much of Amanda Gearing's thinking.
Posted by Johnj, Friday, 31 August 2007 11:23:01 PM
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I don't quite get the by-line to this article title.

What more is it that Parliaments are required to do?

The author has covered the actual legal situation in totality, and that legal situation is unequivocally clear. Pedophilia is defined in law, and viewed by the bulk of society, be it religious or otherwise, as a particularly reprehensible crime.

Amanda has said "Only the police have the authority to investigate and charge offenders with crimes. ..... ..... The reporting of crimes or suspected crimes against children only requires an ability to dial 000."

It seems to me that the central issue here is one of authority. The authority of the Crown at all times over and above that of any church. Most immediately, that of course requires the confidentiality of the confessional be no longer able to be resorted to as an excuse for not passing information with respect to such crimes so obtained on to the police. A logical corollary of this is that in circumstances where it can subsequently be proven that any priest having heard a confession to such a crime and failed to inform police must in turn face the consequences for having effectively been an accessory after the fact.

This is a protestant kingdom. Non-catholic clergy have no "benefit of clergy" exemption from their clear civic duty. All that is required is for the Catholic Church to address this requirement under the British Crown, and formally decide whether or not it will comply. Either it opts to be seen as a haven for pedophiles, or it outs them.

It has the example of Peter (Hollingworth, that is), who stepped aside from the Governor-Generalship, rather than be seen to let any claim to, or mantle of, authority remain available to minimise such offences, some of which had earlier occurred under his nominal pastoral responsibility. True it may be that some thought him hounded from office in a perhaps sanctimonious championing of this cause, but as General Michael Jeffery, perhaps prophetically, said, upon taking up his office, "The Almighty works in some very strange ways."
Posted by Forrest Gumpp, Saturday, 1 September 2007 1:11:05 PM
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Others have said what I am saying really. That is there are so many of these depraved monsters in so many professions that we have no surety for our children.

The church is particularly distasteful because they profess "good" in everything. In reality the church does very little of what they advertise.

To me paedophiles are possibly the worst of all humans. Sorry, the word human is the only one I can use here as animals don't do what these despicable waste of spaces do. I would want them all put away permanently. Any offence once a person is an adult, 18, would mean the rest of their lives is spent behind bars with their own sort. NO release at all as the rescidivism rate is very high.

Why pick on the church over any other area? Rock spiders are just that. Wherever these creatures live, work or reside should be made public, at all times should they ever be out of prison once convicted.
Posted by RobbyH, Saturday, 1 September 2007 1:39:27 PM
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Agree with Belly and disagree with Boaz big time.

Boaz, where on earth did you dig this conspiracy theory up? Marxists? I'm just surprised you didn't blame the Druids. Sorry, John Howard is seeing them in private now, all sects to the PM's office immediately!

Really Boaz stick to what the article is about if you can.

Paedophiles should be simply executed on conviction. Or physically disabled over and above what can be done now. Like castration and shock treatment.
Posted by DavoP, Saturday, 1 September 2007 1:44:04 PM
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