Pell and Abbott - two high profile Catholics who remain in denial concerning the extent of institutionalized child abuse and the part each may have played?

Cardinal George Pell and Minister for Health and Ageing Tony Abbott in 2004

This is the reality that is the Catholic Church in Australia in November 2013.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, self-styled Captain Catholic in a Radio 3AW (Melbourne) interview on 14 November 2013: As is pretty well known, I have a lot of time for George Pell... Well, I didn’t see his evidence before the committee and I haven’t read the report. He is, in my judgment, a fine human being and a great churchman.

Three snapshots from the Victorian Parliament Family and Community Development Committee Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Non-Government Organisations report entitled Betrayal of Trust:

Betrayal of Trust Report:
Volume 1 (PDF 2.2Mb),
Volume 2 (PDF 4.0Mb)

This is an excerpt from the 1997 evidence given by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, when he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, in support of an alleged paedophile priest, John Gerard Nestor, later forcibly laicized by the Vatican:

Q. You kept up your friendship with the defendant?

A. From time to time, yes.
Q. And you saw him?
A. From time to time, perhaps once or twice every twelve months. 
Q. And you've kept up that friendship until this day?
A. That's correct....
Q. First of all, how would you describe him as a man? 
A. An extremely upright and virtuous man. I guess one of things that I liked very much about John when I first him, was his maturity, intellectual, social, emotional he was, to that extent I guess, a beacon of humanity at the Seminary
Q. How did he appear to get on with his peers at the at Manly?
A. Obviously we have different relations with different people. John got on extremely well with some, less well with others. I guess one of the things that marked John out from his peers at the seminary was he was a man with high expectations of himself and others and I can recall on occasions being more than a little annoyed with him, because, you know, he would want to bring me up to the mark, bring me back to the path of virtue from time to time and this didn't always go over too well with me. And I guess it could annoy others as well.
Q. But as far as his own conduct was concerned, did you ever become aware of anything which would in any way question his beliefs and his dedication as a priest?
A. Never.
Q. And you've come all the way from Sydney today to give this evidence?
A. I have indeed.
Q. You do have other duties to perform? A. I have an electorate to represent and a ministry to assist.

NO CROSS-EXAMINATION

[http://tl.gd/n_1rjd2n5]  

"I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church"

 
CALL

A similar letter to the article below was sent directly to NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell.

The Newcastle Herald 8 November 2012:

I have investigated so many sexual assaults in my 35 years of policing I’ve lost count.
Having spent most of those years at the coal face I have seen the worst society can dredge up, particularly the evil of paedophilia within the Catholic Church.
I am not in an executive position or relying on statistics or reports being shielded from reality, I speak from first-hand experience with victims and their abusers.
It is not an easy story to hear and the reason so many cover their ears and turn away. I’ve visited victims in mental hospitals and listened to families tell of suicides. I have looked into their faces, seen their tears of pain, anguish and despair, listened to the hurt of betrayal and felt their isolation from not being believed.
We all hear the words ‘‘paedophile’’ or ‘‘child molester’’ but what do they really mean? The term ‘‘child abuse’’ sweeps over the acts sanitising images of this appalling crime. It’s our inbuilt defence to protect us from those horrific images.
Listening to their stories, typing their statements, I relived their pain. I haven’t blocked those images and they still haunt me. I visited them in psychiatric wards and saw the damage to their families. A solicitor from the DPP broke down reading one of my statements. The abuse was so abhorrent she asked to be relieved of the case. Is it any wonder people don’t want to hear and turn away?
Victims are coming forward in ever-increasing numbers but they need our support. They need your support, Mr Premier. Police are making arrests but still the abuse goes on. It is not enough to say, ‘‘I welcome the police decision to arrest another person [priest] accused of paedophilia’’, when on average it takes 21 years to report these crimes and the priest continues to prey on more little children.
Often the church knows but does nothing other than protect the paedophile and its own reputation. It certainly doesn’t report abuse as revealed by the current Victorian inquiry.
I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church. None of that stops at the Victorian border.
Convicted priest Vincent Ryan was sent to Victoria when the church learned of his abuse, returning the following year after things cooled down to pick up where he left off.
Many police are frustrated by this sinister behaviour, which will continue until someone stops it. You have the power to do that, Mr Premier. The whole system needs to be exposed; the clergy covering up these crimes must to be brought to justice and the network protecting paedophile priests dismantled. There should be no place for evil or its guardians to hide. Then and only then will the arrests begin to slow, signalling fewer children are being raped.
It is no longer enough to just arrest the wrongdoer 21 years after the crime.
Removing the support that harbours these criminals is like cutting the head from the beast. It tears down the veil of secrecy behind which these vile animals operate with the self-assurance of immunity.
A priest once gave evidence that the church’s handling of child sex allegations was under control.
That priest was named by victims as having allegedly helped to cover up the rape of children.
His name continues to appear in other matters. Clearly everything is not under control. Alarm bells are ringing.
I have many family and friends who are Catholic. My children attend Catholic schools so I am not anti-Catholic. I voted for you, Mr O’Farrell, at the last election so my call for a royal commission is not politically motivated. My reason is from the suffering I have witnessed and a desire to make it stop.
There are more than just the victims and their families who want to see a royal commission. I have spoken to teachers who no longer want to be intimidated and silenced. I have sat with a priest and nun who were so distraught they felt forced to leave the church when they couldn’t remain silent. I have taken reports of ostracism and reprisals against victims’ families for giving evidence against priests at trial. If this doesn’t warrant a royal commission something is very wrong.
Apologising is not enough. Compensating victims for treatment is not enough. Mr O’Farrell, please don’t block your ears. Many priests don’t want a royal commission nor does the hierarchy of the church, but God knows we need one.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox is a Hunter police officer with more than 35 years’ experience in the force.

RESPONSE

Courier Mail  9 November 2012:

A SPECIAL commission of inquiry will probe allegations made by a senior police investigator into child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy in the NSW Hunter region.

The commission, announced by Premier Barry O'Farrell on Friday, will be headed by senior counsel Margaret Cunneen to look into claims made by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, alleging cover-ups by police and the Catholic Church in the Hunter.

Mr Fox had publicly challenged Mr O'Farrell to launch a royal commission, writing an open letter to the premier and criticising the state government's continued failure to launch a judicial inquiry on national television.

Mr O'Farrell said while he had "full confidence" in police commissioner Andrew Scipione and the police force, the matters raised were serious.

"They go to the question about whether there has been interface, either within the police force, or by the Catholic Church, in relation to specific allegations of pedophile activity in the Hunter," he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

 

CODA

 

In a somewhat weak response the nominally Catholic NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell is forming a special commission of inquiry with very limited terms of reference confining investigation to the Hunter district and the specific allegations made by Peter Fox.

Apparently he agrees with Cardinal George Pell that a state-wide royal commission into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is not warranted despite the overwhelming evidence now in the public domain.

Peter Fox's response to the formation of a special commission.

 

One cannot help speculate that if O’Farrell was not worried about the Catholic vote, he would have established a full Royal Commission.

UPDATE:

Prime Minister Gillard announces Royal Commission

While the world groans under the weight of 7 billion souls....

Pell cartoon from The Age in 2004

Bl**dy Cardinal George Pell wails about our contraceptive mentality. After his tacit support of paedophile priests and his climate change denialism, this latest effort makes me wonder - is there any more proof needed that the man is fatally rabid? Can we send the dog catcher for him now before he bites again?

Read his latest spiel here.

The putative Australian deputy sheriff in any Abbott-led federal government?

Reading recent utterances of a certain Prince of the Church (and remembering his close cooperation with Abbott during the 2007 campaign) one cannot help but wonder if George Pell sees a possible Coalition victory on 21 August this year as less of a win for neo-conservative politics and more of a victory for the Catholic faith.

A victory which would allow him to figuratively perch on Tony Abbott's left shoulder and encourage that flawed politician's worst character traits.

Pell is obviously afraid that any increase in votes for The Greens would weaken Abbott's chances of becoming Australia's Über Right Wing Catholic prime minister and, the cardinal let fly with these sentiments last Sunday:

The Green ethic, as Bob Brown has written about it with Peter Singer, is that humans are simply another smarter animal, so that humans and animals are on the same or similar levels depending on their level of consciousness. This is to replace the Judaeo-Christian [sic] beliefs at the heart of Australia's values with the law of the jungle. It can be seen in the Greens' enthusiasm for abortion and euthanasia, which is bad news for the weak and the vulnerable, especially at the beginning and the end of life, and thoroughly anti-Christian.
and
One wing of the Greens are like water melons, green outside and red inside. A number were Stalinists, supporting Soviet oppression. A few years ago they even tried unsuccessfully to use the privileges committee of the N.S.W. Legislative Council to silence religious voices in public debate.
and again
"sweet-camouflaged poison".

In this he was supported on the NSW North Coast by the Catholic Bishop of Lismore Diocese who told the faithful that in voting they should consider candidates in this light:

"What sort of beliefs do they espouse? What sort of values do they hold, especially in regard to marriage and the family, in regard to the dignity and sanctity of human life? Is this candidate pro-life? Does he or she reflect the thinking and conduct of a person to whom I am happy, in conscience before God, to confide my vote?....we cannot ignore the enormous moral and social consequence of condoning the deliberate destruction of unborn human life."

While the bishop's counterpart in Perth had already questioned the advisability of voting for a atheist Labor prime minister in the person of Julia Gillard:

"Many Christians are concerned that someone who does not believe in God may not endorse the Christian traditions of respect for human life, for the sanctity of marriage and the independence of churches, church schools and church social welfare agencies."

The media release hurriedly sent out by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference on 9 August, which began "Catholic Bishops do not tell people who to vote for", did not allay all fears that Pell and Co were not so subtly trying to direct votes in their congregations towards the only party headed by a committed pro-lifer.

It seems that Australian religious just can't resist meddling in the secular and, in case you were wondering, any lack of democracy after August 2010 is probably your fault - you, you, you nasty blogospherers!

Pell photograph credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

Cardinal George Pell's hypocrisy

Peter FitzSimons provided this gem in today's Sun Herald.

Images from smh.com.au