George,

Leonie Sheedy is calling on the Pope to apologise while he is in Australia. You might be aware that the Pope - head of the Catholic Church - is paying a rare visit to Australia.
Ms Sheedy is not calling for the Pope to apologise for all churches who ran children’s hell-holes, just those run by the Catholics.

The connection to a thread on Cardinal Pell, you ask? Pell is the head of the Catholic Church in Australia. He has failed to apologise to child abuse in Catholic-run institutions. He needs to be shown some moral and Christian leadership on this issue.

Several of the other churches and State Governments have issued apologies.

As for your inference that the quotation “…implies that other CONTEMPORARY institutions (Christian or not) did a better job when viewed from the position of PRESENT DAY standards and knowledge of psychology and pedagogy”, please tell us precisely which of her words imply that? I think you are reading too much into it. A tad defensive?

Spikey,

If Leonie Sheedy did not imply that the Catholic Church's educational institutions were worse than others at those times, then even more it seems to me that her/your calls for apologies NOW are not so much motivated by the fact of educational callousness (as common as it, sadly, was) as by the fact of the forthcoming World Youth Days (and the associated Pope's visit). This is all I wanted to point out.

George,

Your right. Lots of us think that if Cardinal Pell won't take any notice and won't respond then why not take the opportunity of calling his hand when the Pope's visit is on.

I don't see any problem with this. In any organisation, if you can't get a response to a complaint from you immediate superior you go up the line until you do.

Let's hope the Pope does what he did in the USA and apologises to all victims of sexual abuse.

Thank you for your interest in this issue.

"Lots of us think that if Cardinal Pell won't take any notice and won't respond then why not take the opportunity of calling his hand when the Pope's visit is on.

I don't see any problem with this."

I don't see any problem either. When Anthony Jones went to Pell asking for redress, he was vulnerable and his core grievances were subsequently ignored by Pell. Now Pell is vulnerable because he has to be on his best behaviour for World Youth Day and the allegations against him are coming up like a bad smell.

There is a phrase for this in the Bible: "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". Importantly, what it shows is that the Church is NOT above God's Laws.

Spikey, RobP

>> Lots of us think that if Cardinal Pell won't take any notice and won't respond then why not take the opportunity of calling his hand when the Pope's visit is on <<

Exactly, that was my point, my worry. As an Australian living in Cologne (the venue of WYD 2005 as well as, e.g., of the annual Cologne Gay Pride) I am only worried that Sydney might turn out to be less hospitable than was Cologne towards the hundreds of thousands of young people who are coming just to celebrate their faith, not to hurt anybody.

It is one thing not to identify with what WYD (or Gay Pride for that matter) stands for, and another thing to use this occasion to play out one's prejudices, frustrations and grievances (real or not) thus giving these young visitors a bad impression of Australia.

Cologne's archbishop is certainly not a liberal either, and he has been involved in many controversies. Also, there are probably more Germans who dislike the Pope, are critical of him, want him to apologise for all sorts of grievances that took place in the past, than those who like him. However, these convictions and sentiments were not allowed to surface during the WYD in 2005 in such a way as to dominate them, to spoil the image of Cologne in the memory of these young people.

Of course, there were discussions and talk shows on TV, involving Catholics loyal to the Pope, dissenting Catholics, Protestants, irreligious etc. I do not know how many young visitors watched these, many of us older certainly did, and gained a lot from broadening our view of the problems involved. But that is something different from wanting to disrupt a gathering of young Christians just because one dislikes the Cardinal or even the Pope.

I just hope my worries are unfounded, that I will not have to hear remarks along the lines that Sydney was less civilised, less tolerant, than Cologne was during WYD 2005, and is every year during the Gay Pride.

George

You seem to be asserting that's it's more important to put on a good show than to confront the truth and satisfy justice.

As for your assertion that it's "...another thing to use this occasion to play out one's prejudices, frustrations and grievances (real or not) thus giving these young visitors a bad impression of Australia", which particular prejudices, frustrations and complaints did you have in mind? And which of these are the 'imagined' ones?

Funny how all the concerns of sex abuse victims are constructed as "prejudices, frustrations and grievances (real or not)" while your concerns are centred on not having a nice time with His Holiness. Is your attitude not symptomatic of the problems and inadequacies of the Catholic Church around the world?

In your limited world view you can only imagine people who try to air their grievances (the real ones that Pell won't deal with) must be "...wanting to disrupt a gathering of young Christians just because one dislikes the Cardinal or even the Pope". What has liking the Cardinal or the Pope got to do with whether you were abused or not?

I'm sure you must have definition of 'civilised' and 'tolerant' in mind when you say you hope that won't be found to be: "...less civilised, less tolerant, than Cologne was during WYD 2005".

I think it must be different from mine. I believe that a civilised society would insist that the Church immediately and effectively cleans up the stench of sexual abuse by Church employees, that it would not tolerate for one nano-second any abuse by clergy, and that it would provide unstinting compassion for victims as opposed to treating them as nuisances to be hushed up lest they rain on the Church's parade.

Priorities?