CHILD ABUSE ROYAL COMMISSION
"Nothing is
covered up
that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become
known."
Jesus
Christ — Matthew
10:36
Anonymous
(Investigator 148, 2013
January)
ROYAL COMMISSION
ANNOUNCED
On
November 12th, 2012
Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a commonwealth royal
commission into pedophilia which "would look at the abuse of children
in all institutions."
Many
Australians were
aware of the failings of the Catholic Church in dealing with pedophile
priests and had clamoured for a full investigation.
Cardinal
George Pell,
Australia's leading Catholic, initially opposed a royal commission and
Paul Kelly (Editor-At-Large) called the Commission "a depressing
example of populist politics…framing herself as the arch opponent of
this "incredibly evil thing"". (The Weekend Australian, November 17-18,
2012, p. 15)
Royal
commissions can
compel testimony. They are even able to go behind the confessional seal
to compel evidence of what was confessed. Cardinal George Pell,
however, has pledged that confession was "inviolable".
PEDOPHILE
PRIESTS
Professor
Des Cahill
estimated the proportion of priestly perpetrators to be "at least 5%"
basing this on an American analysis of 105,000 priests "which found
4362 were child sex offenders." (Zwartz 2012)
Madden
(2010) reported
about a priest-teacher who abused 39 boys between 1968 and 1986 at St
Pius X Catholic High School and parishes north of Sydney: "He
repeatedly anally raped some boys, either in his office, or in the
priests' quarters, before sending them back to class… He ordered some
students to perform oral sex on him..."
What did the principal do?
"He…at best took no action, and at worst caned the boys who complained."
The
Church held the view
that internal inquiry was sufficient and police investigation
unnecessary. The rationale was that an offending priest would repent
and not repeat his sin. Internal inquiry constituted a conflict of
interest, the Church investigating things it wanted to hide, and
resulted in pedophiles being transferred to other locations where they
often re-offended. Internal inquiry in effect meant no punishment for
perpetrators and no redress for victims except sometimes money.
Rintoul
(2012) reported:
"the St John of God order…paid out more than $3.6 million in 2002 to 24
men who alleged abuse over a 30-year period from the 1950s… The church
also enabled alleged pedophile Ronald Pickering to flee to England,
denied knowing his whereabouts but continued to administer his
superannuation."
Dan
Box (2012) reported
that "The American Catholic church paid tens of thousands of dollars to
the US victims of an Australian pedophile priest after they agreed not
to pursue legal action against the Australian bishop who sent him
there." The priest began abusing students in 1977 when still in
seminary. He left the Church in 1993 but still received money from the
diocese and was not reported to the police.
Public
perception is
epitomised by the following letter: "The collusions, systemic
acquiescence, almost endemic nature of abuse within the church means
that those in authority, those in power, allowed the abuse to continue
for years in full knowledge of what was being perpetrated." (The
Advertiser, November 22, 2012, p. 24)
Australia
had child
protection laws in place long before the spate of priestly convictions
since the 1990s. Pedophile priests, therefore, could have been
reported. A letter in The Advertiser by one Phil Day said:
"Part of my work from 1959 involved examining allegations and reports
of a sexual nature similar to what will soon be looked into by the
royal commission… I can vouch for the fact that at that time there were
similar facilities in place as there are now for the reporting of such
matters, and they were never taken lightly." (November 22, 2012, p. 24)
OTHER
ORGANIZATIONS
The
Jehovah's Witness
religion has harboured child molesters in Australia, America and other
countries. The New York Times (June 17, 2012) reported:
OAKLAND,
Calif. (AP) — A Northern California jury has awarded $28 million in
damages to a woman who said the Jehovah's Witnesses allowed an adult
member of a Fremont, Calif., church to molest her when she was a child…
Alameda
County jurors
awarded $7 million in compensatory damages…and…$21 million in punitive
damages…said Rick Simons, her lawyer.
In
her lawsuit, Ms.
Conti, 26, said that in 1995 and 1996, when she was 9 and 10 years
old…she was repeatedly molested by a fellow congregant, Jonathan
Kendrick…
Ms.
Conti also said in
her lawsuit that the Christian denomination's national leaders formed a
policy in 1989 that instructed the church's elders to keep child sex
abuse accusations secret. Congregation elders followed that policy when
Mr. Kendrick was convicted in 1994 of misdemeanor child molestation in
Alameda County, according to Mr. Simons…
On
appeal the sum was
reduced to $11.2 million of which The Watchtower Bible and Tract
Society of New York was responsible for 40%. However, a further appeal
is underway.
Among
organizations it's
not only religious organizations that cover up abuse. In England the
BBC turned television personality Jimmy Savile into a national
institution and ignored complaints about him and about other staff.
Savile — who was knighted for his good works — died in 2011 aged 84. A
year later victims were going public, the police pursued 400 lines of
inquiry, and arrests included entertainment industry personalities.
Allegedly Savile exploited his charitable work in hospitals to sexually
abuse paraplegics and children's television shows to abuse children.
Australia's Royal Commission has no jurisdiction in England — however
cover-up in Australian public schools and entertainment professions has
been alleged and reported.
People
entering adulthood
can also be victims. Nicholson (2012) reported that police and criminal
lawyers will examine over 1000 "credible claims" of abuse in the
Australian Defence Force. Military life is physically demanding so as
to toughen up new recruits, and military rapists rationalized rape as
an extra way to make new recruits tougher.
THE
BIBLE
The
Bible is the world's
finest instruction manual in ethics and morals, often thousands of
years ahead of the times. Guided by the Bible the early Church opposed
evils that society saw nothing wrong with such as:
1.
Infanticide;
2.
The slaughter in the Colosseum and other amphitheatres;
3.
Deliberate mutilation of children to make them more effective as
beggars;
4.
Religious prostitution;
5.
The use of torture.
The
Bible is also against
all immorality (including homosexual sex), against bribery, and against
punishment of victims — three principles ignored by the churches that
protected sexual abusers or caned abused kids who complained.
"Depressing
populist
politics"? Breaking the "confessional seal"? No. Jesus himself foretold
a far greater "royal commission":
"I
tell you,
on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every
careless word you utter, for by your words you will be justified, and
by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12:36-37)
May
the Commonwealth
Royal Commission stimulate churches to better follow their Bible and be
"pure and undefiled". (James 1:27)
REFERENCES:
Box, D. US church
paid to
cover sins of priest, The Weekend Australian, December 1-2,
2012, p. 5
Candace
Conti
www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/us/28-million-awarded-in-jehovahs-witnesses-abuse-case.html?_r=0
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160605/Candice-Conti
Dalrymple,
T. The
Predator Who made Vulgarity Honourable, The Australian,
November 13, 2012, p. 12
Madden,
J. (2010)
Pedophile priest jailed for ‘sadistic' sexual abuse of schoolboys, The
Weekend Australian, July 3-4, 2010, p. 3
Nicholson,
B. Police to
pursue defence abusers, The Weekend Australian, December 1-2,
2012, p. 1
Rintoul,
S. Clerical
'murders' concealed by order, The Weekend Australian, November
11-12, 2012, p. 6
Zwartz,
B. One in 20
priests a child sex abuser, The Age, October 22, 2012, p. 1
Over 600 articles
examing the Bible on this website: