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[webfact]

Australia Catholic Church faces six decades of child abuse allegations

By James Regan

REUTERS

 

Officials involved with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse stand as the public hearing into the Catholic Church authorities, begins another session in Sydney, Australia, February 6, 2017. Jeremy Piper/Handout via REUTERS

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Seven percent of Catholic priests working in Australia between 1950 and 2010 were accused of child sex crimes but few were pursued, Church data showed on Monday, as hearings began over allegations dating back decades.

 

Last year, Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, said the Church had made "enormous mistakes" and "catastrophic" choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish and over-relying on counselling of priests to solve the problem.

 

Monday's data, seen as the most substantial to detail the extent of child sex abuse in the Church, were compiled with the Catholic hierarchy's cooperation by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

 

Francis Sullivan, chief executive of the Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council, said 1,265 Catholic priests and religious brothers and nuns had been accused between 1950 and 2010.

 

"These numbers are shocking. They are tragic and they are indefensible," Sullivan told the commission in Sydney. "As Catholics, we hang our heads in shame."

 

Sullivan held back tears as he described the "massive failure on the part of the Catholic Church in Australia to protect children from abusers".

 

Commission research showed 4,444 people had made allegations of abuse to 93 Catholic authorities between 1980 and 2015.

The worst-offending institutions were the orders of brothers who often run schools and homes for the most vulnerable children, with girl victims aged 10.5 on average, while boys were 11.6 years old, the commission's research showed.

 

The church surveyed 10 religious institutions and 75 church authorities to uncover the abuse data on priests, non-ordained brothers and sisters, and other church personnel employed between 1950 and 2009.

 

Prosecutions have been launched in 27 of the 309 abuse cases the commission has referred to Australian police, with 75 more being investigated, it says.

 

The hearing is due to run for three weeks.

 

Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher said in a statement issued through the Vatican that he "personally felt shaken and humiliated" by the findings.

 

"The coming weeks will be traumatic for everyone involved, especially the survivors," he said.

 

"Confronting as it will be, I remain determined to do all we can to assist those who have been harmed by the Church and to work towards a culture of greater transparency, accountability and safety for all children," Fisher said.

 

Two members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors set up by Pope Francis were invited to give evidence via video link but instead opted to provide written evidence on the group's work, the commission was told.

 

Sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church broke into the open in 2002, when it was discovered that U.S. bishops in the Boston area had moved abusers from parish to parish instead of defrocking them.

 

Similar scandals have since been discovered around the world and tens of millions of dollars have been paid in compensation.

 

(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-07

[simple1]

The abuse has been ongoing for much longer as the enquiry only goes back to the 1950's. It is truly appalling, at least in Australia, the Catholic Church leadership had blocked investigators efforts by refusing to provide their own files and in many cases to harass and minimise payments to victims. To compound the disgusting behaviour, in some cases, Church Orders have been identified as having up to 40% of their people identified for sexual assault of children.

 

One hopes that the various church organisations have learnt from the terrible crimes of the past and their lack of action and that society will not be hearing of these awful crimes and cover ups in future years.

[Credo]

I suspect that this is going to cost the Church in Australia a lot of money.   

[klauskunkel]

Quote

Last year, Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, said the Church had made "enormous mistakes" 

Not a mistake but a willful and criminal cover-up by a self-serving organization labeling itself as altruistic

[Krataiboy]

Never mind priests in Australia. What about the home-grown variety in Buddhist Thailand. Hardly a week goes by without some scandal emerging involving randy monks.

 

It's high  time the veil of secrecy surrounding the nefarious activities in Thai temples - with novice male monks, nuns and lay women among the those abused  - was torn aside with a wide-ranging independent inquiry.  

 

This can of worms needs to be opened not just for the sake of the innocent victims and their families but to save the image of Thai Buddhism from being dragged ever deeper into disrepute.

 

Edited February 7, 2017 by Krataiboy
errors

[peterpop]

As usual we find a religion to be a major source of evil.

[Baerboxer]

3 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

Not a mistake but a willful and criminal cover-up by a self-serving organization labeling itself as altruistic

 

Indeed Klausi. The only mistake they regret is being caught.

 

In the past they had enough influence and power to cover it up. 

 

Thoroughly disgusting corrupt organization who give themselves the ability to confess and forgive everything. Real evil.

 

 

[Baerboxer]

2 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Never mind priests in Australia. What about the home-grown variety in Buddhist Thailand. Hardly a week goes by without some scandal emerging involving randy monks.

 

It's high  time the veil of secrecy surrounding the nefarious activities in Thai temples - with novice male monks, nuns and lay women among the those abused  - was torn aside with a wide-ranging independent inquiry.  

 

This can of worms needs to be opened not just for the sake of the innocent victims and their families but to save the image of Thai Buddhism from being dragged ever deeper into disrepute.

 

Only this thread is about the thoroughly corrupt and evil Catholic Church and its very very wicked actions in Australia.

 

Why the deflection - are you Opus Dei or some such?

[KKr]

1 hour ago, peterpop said:

As usual we find a religion to be a major source of evil.

Soccer is a religion ?

Sick People in a position of perceived power are the problem.

[Krataiboy]

2 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

Only this thread is about the thoroughly corrupt and evil Catholic Church and its very very wicked actions in Australia.

 

Why the deflection - are you Opus Dei or some such?

Well, aren't you the picky one. As it happens, I am an anti-theist. My concerns arise from being a father whose devout Buddhist wife and children spend a lot of time visiting temples.  I doubt I am the only Forum member with an interest in reducing the risk involved in practicing their religion - a reality which presumably persuaded the moderators that my "deflection" was justifiable.

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Church had made "enormous mistakes" and "catastrophic" choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish and over-relying on counselling of priests to solve the problem.

 

What is that old saying "In Religion We Trust" time for an overhaul. Being a priest seemed to be a playground to satisfy their fancies especially these young minds looking for guidance and finding something else. 

[jimmybkk]

What's been going on in the Catholic church over the years is simply disgusting and outrageous, and yet it rolls on regardless. If any other institution was found to be involved in such (apparently) systematic abuse of children under its care it would have been shut down years ago. Oh well... I guess there are benefits to being one of the wealthiest institutions on the planet.

 

My question would be whether these paedos joined the church because they knew it would give them opportunities to satisfy their depraved desires or whether they were regular Joe's when they joined and it was a result of joining the church that caused them to start having these desires. As I see it, these are the only 2 options, and neither sheds a good light on the Catholic church. A harbourer of paedos or a nurturer of paedos...? No doubt we shall never find out the answer to this question.

 

When you read about stuff like this, and that 800,000 kids are reported missing in the US every year... (2,000 kids per day...!!!), and that 70 kids per day are reported missing in London alone...!!! It makes you wonder what the hell is going on out there...? Hopefully it also serves as a good reminder to parents that there are some sick & twisted people out there and to remain vigilant and not let their guard down where the safety and well-being of their kids are concerned. It's too easy to think "it won't happen to me...", but what regrets would you have and what would you wish you had done differently if it does happen to you...? Maybe now's the time to do those things differently so you never have those regrets.

[Retiredandhappyhere]

The very fact that these men voluntarily cut themselves off from contact with women, surely says something about their sexuality.  It suggests either no interest in sex at all, or a tendency towards homosexuality or having a liking for children with whom they are likely to come into contact.  Then the whole organisation of like-minded people will do all in their power to hide any scandals. I am a lapsed Catholic and have lived for many years in Buddhist Thailand and to be honest, I now have no trust or faith in any of them. 

[simple1]

On 07/02/2017 at 0:54 PM, Credo said:

I suspect that this is going to cost the Church in Australia a lot of money.   

Have a read of the info at the URL below. The Catholic Church as yet to legally follow though on it's commitment to stop using the "Ellis defence" to minimise / evade compensation payments.

 

The Ellis defence is based on a 2007 NSW Court of Appeal decision that found the church cannot be sued for compensation because it does not technically exist as a legal entity.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-18/catholic-church-insurer-wont-reopen-claims/6477904

[CaptHaddock]

I especially like the crocodile tears of the one black-collar criminal.  Pity he never protected anyone before the whistle was blown.

[rott]

20 hours ago, jimmybkk said:

What's been going on in the Catholic church over the years is simply disgusting and outrageous, and yet it rolls on regardless. If any other institution was found to be involved in such (apparently) systematic abuse of children under its care it would have been shut down years ago. Oh well... I guess there are benefits to being one of the wealthiest institutions on the planet.

 

My question would be whether these paedos joined the church because they knew it would give them opportunities to satisfy their depraved desires or whether they were regular Joe's when they joined and it was a result of joining the church that caused them to start having these desires. As I see it, these are the only 2 options, and neither sheds a good light on the Catholic church. A harbourer of paedos or a nurturer of paedos...? No doubt we shall never find out the answer to this question.

 

When you read about stuff like this, and that 800,000 kids are reported missing in the US every year... (2,000 kids per day...!!!), and that 70 kids per day are reported missing in London alone...!!! It makes you wonder what the hell is going on out there...? Hopefully it also serves as a good reminder to parents that there are some sick & twisted people out there and to remain vigilant and not let their guard down where the safety and well-being of their kids are concerned. It's too easy to think "it won't happen to me...", but what regrets would you have and what would you wish you had done differently if it does happen to you...? Maybe now's the time to do those things differently so you never have those regrets.

Jimmy your first two para 's are bang on the message, but I have to query the figures in the third. Are at least 99.9% of those reported missing back at home within 24 hours or so? I hope so.

Edited February 8, 2017 by rott

[Stupooey]

The job description for a Catholic priest seems almost to have been written with paedophiles in mind: easy access to adolescents, and no questions asked about the lack of partners oftheir own age. The obvious solution is to allow priests to marry, but no Pope has had the guts to implement this, even though there is no evidence that Jesus himself was unmarried.

[simple1]

8 hours ago, Stupooey said:

The job description for a Catholic priest seems almost to have been written with paedophiles in mind: easy access to adolescents, and no questions asked about the lack of partners oftheir own age. The obvious solution is to allow priests to marry, but no Pope has had the guts to implement this, even though there is no evidence that Jesus himself was unmarried.

Given the vast majority of  priests and others in church organisations is sexual abuse of male children, why do you think permitting marriage to an adult female is a solution?

[Galactus]

a well known fact. so i wonder that is why lots of pedophiles originated from Australia?

what a sad story and nearly one in ten priests are pedos! 

Christianity, religion of rape and pedophilia! 

and this is a well know fact for millenniums and nothing has been done and church just apologizes.

all i know this is same in every christian majority country including UK and US.

hope they kick the church out of Australia after this report.

[Grouse]

Celibacy; damned silly idea.

 

Same as teaching abstinence; it doesn't work in practice.

 

Ironically, why do creationists think God created randiness? Sorry I don't have a punch line.

[Stupooey]

8 hours ago, simple1 said:

Given the vast majority of  priests and others in church organisations is sexual abuse of male children, why do you think permitting marriage to an adult female is a solution?

1) Adult males in a heterosexual relationship would not be barred from becoming priests

2) Homosexual priests would be allowed adult partners (possibly married in a future utopia)

3) Given 1) and 2), the number of paedophiles becoming priests would not only decrease, but they would also leave themselves open to suspicion

[simple1]

5 minutes ago, Stupooey said:

1) Adult males in a heterosexual relationship would not be barred from becoming priests

2) Homosexual priests would be allowed adult partners (possibly married in a future utopia)

3) Given 1) and 2), the number of paedophiles becoming priests would not only decrease, but they would also leave themselves open to suspicion

I could be wrong, but as I understand homosexuality and paedophilia are not linked.

 

Given the ongoing culture of church organisations is to deceive / cover up their members criminal activity with children it may take years / generations for cultural change to fully take effect. IMO a better approach (poor example but you will get my drift - just like increasing the cost of speeding tickets changes behaviour) would be to change the law so that religious organisations cannot hide behind current organisational structures, but corporatise their structures so that significant penalties against organisations and individuals can be enforced in order that Church organisations take responsibility now, rather than at some time in the future.

[Stupooey]

7 minutes ago, simple1 said:

I could be wrong, but as I understand homosexuality and paedophilia are not linked.

 

Given the ongoing culture of church organisations is to deceive / cover up their members criminal activity with children it may take years / generations for cultural change to fully take effect. IMO a better approach (poor example but you will get my drift - just like increasing the cost of speeding tickets changes behaviour) would be to change the law so that religious organisations cannot hide behind current organisational structures, but corporatise their structures so that significant penalties against organisations and individuals can be enforced in order that Church organisations take responsibility now, rather than at some time in the future.

I was not trying to link paedophilia with homosexuality per se. However, there is a link between paedophilia and people of any sexual orientation who are unable or unwilling to establish a relationship with a fellow adult. By excluding people in such a relationship from the priesthood, it is opening the door to the rest.

[jimmybkk]

On 08/02/2017 at 2:30 PM, rott said:

Jimmy your first two para 's are bang on the message, but I have to query the figures in the third. Are at least 99.9% of those reported missing back at home within 24 hours or so? I hope so.

rott - I understand your skepticism, but that figure for missing kids in the US apparently comes from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: Here's a link to one place where it was reported.

 

Unfortunately it seems there are no figures available for how many of those reported missing turn up safe and well within 24 hours but I would imagine it is not an insignificant number. However, we live in an age where kids have smartphones and social media accounts - 30 years ago if a kid got sidetracked or delayed on the way home they would have to find a working payphone and have some change in their pocket, or go to a friend's house in order to let their parents know they would be late, so you could understand parents worrying and perhaps reporting them missing prematurely. These days it's easy enough for kids to make a call, send a text, or even post something on Facebook that would let a parent know that their kid was OK. I'm not saying that all kids would do this, but I would imagine the %age of false alarms would have decreased over the years.

Something else to think about - these are just the numbers of reported cases. How many cases go unreported? I'm sure there are a lot of parents in the US who would prefer not to bring themselves to the attention of the authorities for any reason, e.g. those parents with immigration/visa issues, those with outstanding arrest warrants, those who don't want to be found for whatever reason... etc. etc. How about homeless kids who go missing? I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be included in the 800,000 because who would file the report? And providers of foster care are probably a lot less likely to report a missing child due to the potential ramifications.

 

Regarding the UK, here's an interesting quote:

 

Andy McCullough, head of strategy and policy at Railway Children, which supports vulnerable young people on Britain’s streets, said: “It is alarming to see that the number of children reported missing in London has risen so significantly.

“Children run away for many reasons, usually to escape things they find stressful such as problems at school or home. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“Anecdotal research indicates that as many as two thirds of young people who run away from home are not even reported missing and may be too vulnerable and afraid to seek help from official services.” (Link to Source)

 

Here's a link for the numbers I quoted for kids reported missing in London:

 

Interesting to note that these figures were not voluntarily made public by the UK police and were only released upon requests being made through the Freedom of Information Act. What does that tell you...?

 

If these figures are even close to being correct for the US and parts of the UK, one can only imagine what the numbers may be like for less-developed countries. There is something very, very wrong with this picture and it is not getting anywhere near enough of the media attention it deserves.

[rott]

 

On 2/9/2017 at 1:37 PM, Grouse said:

Celibacy; damned silly idea.

 

Same as teaching abstinence; it doesn't work in practice.

 

Ironically, why do creationists think God created randiness? Sorry I don't have a punch line.

God did not create a celibate priesthood, the papacy did. Scripture gives no such instruction or justification. It is a man made rule.

Edited February 21, 2017 by rott

[rott]

Jimmy not being sceptical at all but given those horrific figures, they are a bit meaningless without being qualified by stating how many are still missing after one day / one week / one month. I suspect that 99% are back fairly quickly.

 

If the total number quoted were permanently missing that would represent a society in absolute chaos.

[xylophone]

IMO this is still the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, however we will probably never know the true number of abused children and there is a reason I say this, because just a short while ago it was announced on the news that priests and whomever would have to appear in court and the truth would come out because they would have to swear on the Bible (on oath)............... quite what was going through the minds of these people when this was announced is unbelievable.

 

Here you have paedophile priests who have damaged children, taken advantage of them and sexually abused them, all of which surely goes against the teachings of the man who was supposedly sent here on earth and the Bible. So obviously the Bible means nothing to them, nor does their religion other than it being a means by which they can sexually abuse children, so why on earth does anybody think that they would tell the truth if swearing on the Bible, the very foundation of their religion which they have basically defiled.

 

Unbelievable.

[jimmybkk]

On 21/02/2017 at 5:54 PM, rott said:

Jimmy not being sceptical at all but given those horrific figures, they are a bit meaningless without being qualified by stating how many are still missing after one day / one week / one month. I suspect that 99% are back fairly quickly.

 

If the total number quoted were permanently missing that would represent a society in absolute chaos.

Fair point rott - I was just blown away by the staggering numbers when I read them, and I think they say something interesting regardless of how many kids are found - whether they say that freedom of access to news and information about heinous crimes, and the media's understanding that shocking news sells, has resulted in parents in the US living in a state of permanent fear, ready to pick up the phone as soon as their child is 10 mins late... or whether the numbers say that kids have become increasingly more inconsiderate about worries and peace of mind of their parents... Who's to say...? 

 

I did some research into this and turned up some very interesting and some extremely disturbing information. There really does appear to be something very sinister occurring, and it goes way beyond what's been revealed about the goings-on in the Catholic Church. In the UK (and elsewhere) these crimes against children appear to be prevalent amongst those powerful enough to cover a lot of it up or else distort the way events are reported. Police and high-ranking UK politicians for starters, and we're talking some seriously crazy sh!t that I never heard anything about, presumably because the mainstream press either didn't cover it or else made it appear to be your normal, everyday case of a politician caught in a rather compromising position with a much younger "lover". I am now far more concerned with the cases of missing children that don't get reported than the ones that do, and apparently: "a 1997 study estimated that only 5 percent of nonfamily abductions (in which a nonfamily member detains a child using force for more than an hour) get reported to police."  (Source) Anyway, here's what I learned:

 

• According podcast called "Inside the FBI", an FBI representative claimed that: "When the number of cases the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children handles is measured against the number of children found, the recovery rate is 97 percent and climbing."  On other websites I've read that it's around 90-95%. (Source: Inside the FBI)
• I posted previously that I found it interesting that the UK Police did not publicize the number of missing kids in the UK voluntarily, and instead it required implementation of the Freedom of Data Act by a 3rd party for the UK Police to release the details. It would seem to be a similar situation with the FBI. An Act was introduced in 1990 that required the release of data regarding the number of children reported missing in the US each year - it took 16 years for the FBI to comply with this Act.
• Despite the claim of a 97% recovery rate on "Inside the FBI", the figures displayed on the FBI website for monthly/yearly numbers of children reported missing appear to be designed to obfuscate. They list the number of persons reported missing each year, month by month and break it down by profile: by age, by gender, by race etc., which is easy enough to understand, but for yearly/monthly numbers of missing persons that are found they only show how many were found/cases closed during that month/year but with report dates going back to when they first started taking records. In other words, a case reported in 2010 where the child/person was found in March 2016 would be reported as a "found" with no differentiation from someone who was found on the same day but had only been missing for 48 hours. So in numerous months/years there are more "founds" than there were reports of people missing... (Source)
• According to the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC): "An estimated 8 million children will disappear and another 2 million will fall victim to sexual exploitation in just this year alone." "300 million children in this generation will be victimized sexually before they reach adulthood."
• Then i stumbled across this site and this is where it all gets very disturbing. I was aware of the scandals involving Jimmy Savile and other UK celebrities but I was not aware of the extent to which politicians and police were involved, nor was I aware of the nature of the events that took place. (Details here...)
• In 2014, the UK's current PM, Theresa May, was Home Secretary and she apparently described claims that MPs murdered and abused children at an exclusive block of flats as "the tip of the iceberg". One of the many shocking aspects of this is that many of the kids that were being abused at Elm Guest House were being supplied by the local children's home...
• Then there is this report of an 8-yr old who disappeared whilst watching Prince Charles and Lady Diana's carriage pass by on the way to their wedding. He apparently got separated from his parents and disappeared in the vicinity of Elm Guest House. The boy's father, a former JP at Wimbledon Magistrate's Court, received an anonymous phone call suggesting that his son may have been abducted by people from Elm Guest House. When they found the boy's body: "There was no trace of his legs, pelvis or lower spine or of his outer clothes or Superman underwear." His father claims that despite having a recording of the anonymous call the police weren't interested in investigating... (Source) 
• I also read on one website a claim from a journalist that she had interviewed the director of children's home in Romania who claimed to have "lost" 400 kids...

  Something's very, very wrong and I have ordered one of these for my kid, just in case... http://www.iwonlex.com/wearable-kids-gps-watch-q50

 

On a more positive note, this is quite interesting...: http://www.freerangekids.com/crime-statistics/

[rott]

Jimmy thanks for taking so much trouble with your reply, I will give it a thorough read tomorrow.