Katherine and Emma and their father Anthony Foster….
My blood was boiling last week over revelations that Archbishop George Pell had tried to deny and cover up an allegation of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest. You can read the details of that here. Basically, despite there being a recording of the priest admitting to his male rape victim that "I forced myself upon you" , the Archbishop claimed he was not convinced that the sex was not consensual. What right did he have to make that judgement? He is neither a police officer nor a judge.
And now, yet another tragic case has come to light. According to Lateline last night and reports in the SMH today:
THE parents of two girls who were repeatedly raped by a
Melbourne priest are flying to Sydney from London to face Cardinal
George Pell in time for Sunday’s World Youth Day final Mass.
Anthony Foster, whose daughters were raped by Kevin O’Donnell
when they were in primary school, alleges Cardinal Pell stalled the
family’s compensation claim against the Catholic Church when he was
archbishop of Melbourne.Earlier this year, the eldest daughter, Emma, took her own life
after a long battle with drug addiction, which Mr Foster attributed
directly to her rape as a schoolgirl. His second daughter,
Katherine, who developed a heavy drinking habit, was hit by a drunk
driver in 1999 and left physically and mentally disabled and
requiring 24-hour care.
Last night, Mr Foster told the ABC’s Lateline program
that last week’s revelations that Cardinal Pell allegedly
obstructed a sexual abuse case against another priest had sparked
him into action.He said he hoped he could support others with sexual abuse
claims and change the church’s attitudes to compensating
victims."I want them to set up a system that provides a life-time help
to victims, that begs forgiveness to victims," Mr Foster said.Mr Foster said an apology by the Pope to victims of sexual abuse
in the church would not be satisfactory unless it was backed up by
structural change."An apology is not enough unless it is backed up with action,
unless he removes all obstacles to continuing support for victims,"
Mr Foster said."They should come to us and beg for forgiveness."
His daughters were raped over five years by O’Donnell when they
attended Sacred Heart Primary School in Oakleigh between 1988 and
1993.
It’s not yet clear what the Pope is going to say in his apology to the victims of sexual abuse by Catholic Clergy but George Pell’s attitude strikes me as arrogant, imperious and sceptical. A lot like the other day when he said he didn’t believe in global warming or that anything humans have done or continue to do is causing it.
When will the Catholic Church accept that sexual abuse by priests is not ‘an internal issue’ for them to deal with but a crime. A crime that must be acknowledged by the church who should also apologise to and compensate the victims.
Comments
14 Comments so far
Isn’t it amazing that a church that claims to have a direct line to God’s grace is unable to provide Grace and Comfort to victims of it’s priesthood. If they are unable to do even this, what earthly (or heavenly) use are they to anyone?
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Mia, after this ‘bee in my bonnet’, I promise to shut up!
you’re right kelly, not about contaception, but about my statement about inheritance. After I mouthed off in two long posts about this subject I thought I should do some reading on the subject. And it got scarier. You’re right, inheritance wasn’t a generating factor, it was a fortunate byproduct for the Catholic heirachy. In Feudal times, clerics owned land, were bequeathed land etc, and as per the feudal system, were able to amass considerable tracts of land.
The ascetic catholics were ever at odds to out-do other sects at acseticism, ie, fasting, celibacy, etc. Celibacy grew out of a misguided understanding of human sexuality. It is scary to read how this has affected society ever since. The main tenet here is that early Catholics believed that sex was only for procreation, and more damaging, that, it was sinful if experienced pleasurably, as a result. Couples were urged to live in ‘sexless’ marriages. Clergy especially were pushed along this path, until eventually, celibacy, in 1139, was decreed as an absolute.
This is the tenet that the Catholic Church today uses to defend celibacy and the other big three that Mia wrote about. This organisation is an abomination. If this organisation isn’t to continue to be an abomination, it needs to stand up, be counted, and say hello to the 21st Century. No number of WYDs will ever erase the centuries of damage inflicted by these misguided people.
The faith, however, of the young people, pilgrims if you will, is inspiring, it is hopeful. They didn’t bring forth the Inquisition. They didn’t allow subterfuge when misdeameanours were discovered. They are bright, intelligent, spiritual kids, and they deserve every chance to bring this archaic version of God’s Word into the 21st Century. I believe they will. Let’s hope that the life denying patriachs, the very disappointing heralds of our current Catholic faith allow this wonderful new generation of hopeful believers to forge a new Catholic world of belief. One that not only Catholic people, but also Protestant, Muslim, and all rellgions can salute as being a way forward for humanity. Because after all, that is what we are. That is all we are, and that is our wonderful destiny. To be humanity.
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jLo, absolutely. As Mia stated, the cardinal or archbishop is not a judge, and is not appointed to decide on society’s behalf. He is an elected official of a sect, or religion, not a spokesperson for society as a whole.
It should certainly be unlawful for clergy to withold information about abuse. And I bet London to a brick that that never happens. Thus my disdain for the religion or sect called Catholicism.
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The most important point in this debate for me is that NO ONE in the church has the power to make assessments on alledged abuse cases- thats what DoCs in for. All teachers, community workers and other people working with children are obliged under the Child Protection Act to reported suspected harm involving children to the DoCs to make assessments.
Whether DoCs do this job well in another issues, however, it is not our job to determine whether harm has occurred or not, our job is to gather the basic information and report it to the intake workers at DoCs who will then determine the next course of action.
People in the church do not have special consideration to make assessments UNDER THE LAW and there should be repercussions on them for not passing on info to the appropriate authorities rather than keeping it ‘in house’ to protect themselves.
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I was under the impression that the celibacy ‘rule’ came in not because of wealth being inherited outside the church, but because the priests were having too many children (no contraception remember) and the church couldn’t afford to keep them all, so rather than make a ruling that they be allowed to practise safe sex after a few kids, they thought it was much more intelligent and godly to enforce celibacy. I’m sure the parents of abused children and abused children themselves feel sleep better at night knowing it came about “in the name of God”
On another tangent, I am not a protester by nature, except from my living room, but when those awful laws came in basically banning free expression at WYD I was a hairsbreadth away from booking my ticket to Sydney with a “Chief Homophobe” t-shirt and a bix suitcase of condoms. Lucky for them they saw sense and overturned it.
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Gigdiary and Cerry; well said!
If you’ll forgive the laboured pun, celibacy is the root of this particular evil.
Men have needs no matter how religious they may be. We all know that to get a bit of action, men will coerce, lie, cheat, connive and deceive.
Apparently, religious faith is no guarantee of “control”
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Hi Mia – I totally agree and I have no idea how they have managed to keep these crimes under wraps for such a long time, they are criminal acts. I always wondered whether if priests were allowed to get married or have long term partners that this wouldn’t be so prevalent. Clearly there is something wrong with their faith from that perspective. Everything else in society has had to move forward into the 21st century, may be it’s time the Catholic Church needs to too.
I have to say I am a non-practicing Catholic, I am very spiritual, just not religious and I live in the South-Eastern suburbs that have been greatly inconvenienced by WYD, for the Government to have over 300,000 in a residential urban city area where it’s already crowded is such a great inconvenience to us getting on with our own lives but being in the city the other day for work and seeing all the pilgrims everywhere in the city with all their joy and happiness everywhere was just so wonderful to experience, they have really lifted the vibe of the city this week … but I still wish Randwick wasn’t the venue of choice!
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Melanie, thanks for underscoring my post. For the parents of the girls, and all parents involved in situations like this, the horror must be unimaginable.
Cath, while not making light of the issue, your light-hearted, yet meaningful post was well placed after my intensity of opinion. And very funny as well. The government’s imposition of the ‘annoying T-shirt’ law showed just how skewed this debate has become. The court’s decision to rescind such a ruling is the first breath of common sense fresh air in this atmosphere of religious fervour and seemingly secular insensibility.
Whilst the topic of Mia’s post was child abuse by clergy, it must be recognised that this issue has rightfully been brought to a head with the Catholic WYD.
If the government had left well enough alone, the resulting media and publicity storm possibly would not have occurred. The Catholic Church has more than ample funds to bankroll an event such as this. Sydney has a world class venue, Olympic Park, Homebush, for such events. The city need not have been compromised. With less dislocation of services and liberties, Sydney would have risen to the spirit of the occasion, like the Olympics, and rallied in support of the pilgrims gracing our city.
The mishandling of this event by the government has made the event a divisive rather than inclusive one for Sydney. However, even so, this doesn’t expunge the issues subsequently presented by Archbishop Pell’s recent comments and previous actions. In a perverse way, we have been put on a higher alert, and as common and decent citizens of this country, deserve an intelligible and responsible reply to any and all accusations.
Anything less is obfuscation, or as I see it, cowardice and immorality on the part of the Catholic heirachy. I want to believe in the spirit of the faith that the pilgrims are glowing with at the moment. We all do. We aren’t naturally a cynical people.
Corrupt power, whether government or religion, destroys our natural joie de vivre. Australians do not deserve that.
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I’m with you, Gigdiary. And I think it is really horrible. My heart goes out to the parents of these girls. They must be devastated about their girls and what has happened to them. It’s awful.
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I don’t mind Pope Benedict – I’m a big fan of his eggs. Although he is a little spritely for a pope… I’m still not used to seeing a Pope who can move his limbs so freely, and open his eyes!
Having said that, I’m with you Mia. I think we’ll be lucky to get an adequate apology, let alone any action, or compensation for the victims. And we’re light years away from any progressive changes to the Catholic Church (see above comments).
It’s going to take more than the hip activities of World Youth Day (groovy young Catholics only need apply), to bring sexy back to the Catholic Church!
People are still in pain, and deserve acknowledgement, apologies, and action. “Sorry about that..” just won’t cut it on this one.
On a lighter note, the move to make ‘annoying’ pilgrims /catholics illegal during the week of World Youth Day was the most hilarious thing I’ve heard for ages – very Monty Pythonesque! Such a double standard! Then don’t have to pay anyone for being annoying, do they? It certainly would have incited some world class annoying if it hadn’t been overturned.
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In my opinion, celibacy is a major reason for this continued abuse. Celibacy was introduced in the 12th Century by the church to prevent the priests from leaving their wealth, (how come they had wealth, but that’s another anomaly), to anyone other than the church. It has no biblical basis. 1,800 years later, and untold damage done to so many lives, all in the belief that celibacy is ‘God’s Word’.
As the Muslims say, ‘God’s Word is Great!’, but make sure you read God’s Word, not the dictates of the men in Rome or the men in Mecca.
That’s just my tuppence ha’penny worth.
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I can’t believe that George Pell goes on denying that there’s a problem when things like this are happening. That’s just such a horrible situation, and it’s likely that shit all will be done about it. I can’t help wondering if there would be less sexual abuse among clergy if the church didn’t insist on them being celebate, but that’s just my two cents.
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I was wondering, Mia, if you were going to post on this issue. Good on you for doing so and excellent post as well. On Monday, usually erudite Gerard Henderson attacked critics of WYD for not feeling the joy in the occasion. ‘Sneering’ was his word for those who dared express opposition to this, what should be, a joyous event for Catholicism. Obviously some don’t see the joy, when this behemoth of religious antiquity continues to sweep abominations like this under the rug. Henderson wonders why we don’t feel the joy!
Pell’s sidekick from WYD, Bishop Fisher, with his attempt to exonerate Pell from recent statements and previous actions, reminds me of the recent Muslim debacle by since denounced ‘mufti’ Sheik Hilali. No matter what Hilali said to the media, sidekick Kaysar Trad was always there to say his comments were ‘taken out of context’. Perhaps the Sheik had cultural misunderstanding on his side.
Bishop Fisher’s statement today is treading a similar specious path to those of Trad’s. However, Fisher and Pell have no recourse to ambiguity with their statements. They are probably, as a bishop and archbishop, in the top decile of English educated people in Australia. As such they should be addressing the grave concerns of victims, fellow Catholics and the general population. Instead they are ducking and weaving behind a fabrication of flimsy justification.
I do feel the joy when, in my suburb each morning, I see pilgrims walking happily to the station for each WYD day’s events. Lanyards in place, guitars jangling and smiles abounding. Hopefully these young people are reconciling their views of this event with the history of their church, or will be doing so. For some of us however, it is too grievous for such a joyous outpouring. Rather, our indignation over disavowed sexual abuse is ‘blood-boiling’ and rightly so.
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oh – their attitude gets better!
“The co-ordinator of World Youth Day, Bishop Anthony Fisher, today responded to a question about Cardinal George Pell’s handling of a sexual abuse case by saying people are “dwelling crankily … on old wounds”.?
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-youth-day/bishop-puts-foot-in-it/2008/07/16/1216162910430.html
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