A Child’s Morning Prayer
Lord, I awake and see your light,
For You have kept me through the night,
To You I lift my hands and pray,
Keep me from sin throughout this day,
And if I die before it's done,
Save me through Jesus Christ, Your Son.
For You have kept me through the night,
To You I lift my hands and pray,
Keep me from sin throughout this day,
And if I die before it's done,
Save me through Jesus Christ, Your Son.
Amen.
A Child’s
Night Prayer
Angel
of God, my Guardian dear,
to whom
His love commits me here,
ever
this night be at my side,
to
light and guard,
to rule
and guide.
Amen
Origin unknown
The Commonwealth
of Australia Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child
Sexual Abuse held its first public hearing in Sydney from Monday 16 to Thursday 19
September 2013. The Royal Commission's first
public hearing into the Catholic Church in Australia and child sexual abuse
began on Monday, 9 December 2013 and multiple hearings relating to Catholic institutions and specific clergy followed over the next four years.
1. This is the Royal Commission’s 50th
public hearing…..
7. It was plain that hearings were
needed to examine the responses of faith-based institutions, given that, as at
the end of 2016, 60% of survivors attending a private session reported abuse in
those institutions. Of those survivors, nearly two thirds reported abuse in
Catholic institutions. While the percentage has varied over time, at present
over 37% of all private session attendees reported sexual abuse in a Catholic
institution. Consequently Catholic institutions were a key part of the Royal
Commission’s public hearings. …….
26. Between January 1980 and February
2015, 4,444 people alleged incidents of child sexual abuse made to 93 Catholic
Church authorities. These claims related to over 1000 separate institutions.
27. The claims survey sought
information about the people who made claims of child sexual abuse. Where the
gender of people making a claim was reported, 78% were male and 22% were
female. Of those people who made claims of child sexual abuse received by
religious orders with only religious brother members, 97% were male.
28. The average age of people who made
claims of child sexual abuse, at the time of the alleged abuse, was 10.5 for
girls and 11.6 for boys. The average time between the alleged abuse and the
date a claim was made was 33 years.
29. The claims survey sought
information about alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse. A total of 1,880
alleged perpetrators were identified in claims of child sexual abuse. Over 500
unknown people were identified as alleged perpetrators. It cannot be determined
whether any of those people whose identities are unknown were identified by
another claimant in a separate claim.
30. Of the 1,880 identified alleged
perpetrators:
a. 597 or 32% were religious brothers
b. 572 or 30% were priests
c. 543 or 29% were lay people
d. 96 or 5% were religious sisters.
31. Of all alleged perpetrators, 90%
were male and 10% were female.
32. The Royal Commission surveyed 75
Catholic Church authorities with priest members, including archdioceses,
dioceses and religious orders about the number of their members who ministered
in Australia between 1 January 1950 and 31 December 2010. Ten Catholic
religious orders with religious brother or sister members provided the same
information about their members.
33. This information, when analysed in
conjunction with the claims data, enabled calculation of the proportion of
priests and religious brother and sister members of these Catholic Church
authorities who ministered in this period and who were alleged perpetrators.
34. Of priests from the 75 Catholic
Church authorities with priest members surveyed, who ministered in Australia
between 1950 and 2010, 7.9% of diocesan priests were alleged perpetrators and
5.7% of religious priests were alleged perpetrators. Overall, 7% of priests
were alleged perpetrators.
35. The Archdiocese of Adelaide and
the Dominican Friars had the lowest overall proportion of priests who
ministered in the period 1950 to 2010 and were alleged perpetrators, at 2.4%
and 2.1% respectively.
36. The following five archdioceses or
dioceses with priest members which had the highest overall proportion of
priests who ministered in the period 1950 to 2010 and who were alleged perpetrators:
a. 11.7% of priests from the Diocese
of Wollongong were alleged perpetrators
b. 13.9% of priests from the Diocese
of Lismore were alleged perpetrators
c. 14.1% of priests from the Diocese
of Port Pirie were alleged perpetrators
d. 14.7% of priests from the Diocese
of Sandhurst were alleged perpetrators
e. 15.1% of priests from the Diocese
of Sale were alleged perpetrators.
37. The following five religious
orders with priest members had the highest overall proportion of priests who
ministered in the period 1950 to 2010 and who were alleged perpetrators:
a. 8.0% of priests from the
Vincentians – The Congregation of the Mission were alleged perpetrators
b. 13.7% of priests from the
Pallottines – Society of the Catholic Apostolate were alleged perpetrators
d. 17.2% of priests from the Salesians
of Don Bosco were alleged perpetrators
e. 21.5% of priests from the
Benedictine Community of New Norcia were alleged perpetrators.
38. In relation to religious orders
with religious brother and sister members, the Sisters of St Joseph of the
Sacred Heart and the Sisters of Mercy (Brisbane) had the lowest overall
proportions of members who were alleged perpetrators, at 0.6% and 0.3%
respectively.
39. The following five religious
orders with only religious brother members had the highest overall proportion
of religious brothers who ministered in the period 1950 to 2010 and who were
alleged perpetrators:
a. 13.8% of De La Salle Brothers were
alleged perpetrators
b. 20.4% of Marist Brothers were
alleged perpetrators
c. 21.9% of Salesians of Don Bosco
brothers were alleged perpetrators
d. 22.0% of Christian Brothers were
alleged perpetrators
e. 40.4% of St John of God Brothers
were alleged perpetrators.
c.
13.9% of priests from the Marist Fathers – Society of Mary were alleged
perpetrators, as distinct from the Marist Brothers.
NOTE:
The St. John of God Brothers were
established in Australia in the 1940s by eight men,
six of whom were believed to be paedophiles. Brothers
Kilian Herbert and Laurence Hartley arrived in Sydney from Ireland on 11 August
1947 to head this small group.
Previous North Coast Voices posts on child sexual abuse can be found here.
News.com.au, 6 February 2017:
A brief of evidence concerning historical claims of sexual abuse at the hands of Cardinal George Pell has been delivered to prosecutors for consideration.
Victoria Police confirmed with AAP on Monday night that investigators had delivered the brief to the Office of Public Prosecutions.
It's a significant development in the case since three police travelled to Rome in October to speak with the former Ballarat priest and Melbourne archbishop.
Cardinal Pell now resides full-time at the Vatican. He cited ill-health as a reason he could not travel back to Australia to give evidence in last year's royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, appearing instead via video link.
Allegations emerged in 2015 from two men who said they were groped as children by Cardinal Pell when he was a priest in Ballarat during the 1970s.
Another man claimed he saw the priest expose himself to young boys in the late 1980s.
Cardinal Pell previously released a statement rejecting "all and every allegation of sexual abuse" and would continue co-operating with Victoria Police until the investigation was finalised.
The
Northern Star, 7
February 2017:
WEDNESDAY 4.30pm: NEARLY
14% of Lismore's most experienced Catholic priests were accused of sexually
abusing children by 2010 but the diocese's spokesman, the Most Reverend
Geoffrey Jarrett, has reserved comment.
Between 52 and 64
priests have served in the Diocese of Lismore in each decade since 1950, with
129 priests having served in the area by 2010, detailed data presented to the
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has shown.
Some 18 of those
priests, or 13.9%, have been accused of sexually abusing children throughout
their careers, marking Lismore as one of the nation's top five worst dioceses
for child sex accusations against the Church.
Too soon to comment:
Diocese of Lismore
But Apostolic
Administrator of the Diocese Bishop Jarrett, standing in while Bishop-elect
Father Gregory Homeming prepares for his ordination, said it was too early to
comment publicly on findings.
"My response is
that we are in the early days of the Royal Commission's present three week
hearing, and until it completes its investigation, it would be premature to
comment on the first release of statistics," Bishop Jarrett said via email
to The Northern Star.
"We would expect to
have a fuller picture and a wider range of issues as time goes on and I will be
available for comment at the end of the hearing."
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