The victims of child abuse in the Church can be living with the pain many years after the offence, just as the scandal can emerge long after the crime.
September 2 marks the start of Child Protection Week when the focus turns to ensuring society does its best to ensure such pain is prevented. ROBIN WILLIAMS reports
AUSTRALIANS will be asked to focus on the safety of children in a special way over the next seven days during Child Protection Week (September 2-8), and the Church is being invited to play its part.
For the Church, the week will culminate with the celebration of Child Protection Sunday on September 9 when the Church will highlight its preventative efforts in the area of child abuse, and encourage all Catholics to be part of making the future safer for children.
Through resources from the National Office for Professional Standards of the Church in Australia, parishes have also been encouraged to display five white balloons to express their solidarity with those in the wider community who work to prevent abuse of children and young people.
One of the most prominent groups involved in this work is Bravehearts, a Queensland-based organisation founded by Hetty Johnston in 1997.
In a submission to The Catholic Leader, Ms Johnston, who is Bravehearts executive director, said “Silence, Secrecy and Shame (the three S’s)” were the sex offender’s best friend and the child’s worst enemy.
She said sadly, there were many institutions, including churches, which provided the type of environment where the “three S’s” could flourish.
Ms Johnston has called on the wider Catholic community to stand together to believe, support and defend children, and oust offenders.
Karl Morris, who chairs the Bravehearts board, is a Catholic. He is also executive chairman of Ord Minnett Ltd, and sits on a number of boards including Sydney Catholic Development Fund, Sydney Archdiocesan Investment and Finance committees, and the Brisbane Archdiocesan Investment Committee.
With his wife Louise, Mr Morris has supported Bravehearts’ work for many years.
He agrees with Ms Johnston’s call for all Catholics to promote and support the Church’s intolerance of child abusers.
“There is no doubt that our Church leaders have no tolerance for putting children at risk,” he said.
“We have seen this from the statements and actions of Archbishop (Mark) Coleridge and by the actions of the Church. For example, the acceptance of seminarians is significantly more rigorous.
“The clergy are as passionate as anyone else to protect our children.”
Mr Morris also encouraged Catholics to join with the wider community to ensure no child under the protection of the Church was ever hurt again.
“No one can ever give a guarantee that a child under the protection of the Church will never be hurt again but ‘we’ can give a guarantee that the Church will do everything possible to ensure that it does all that it can to prevent it from occurring,” he said.
“This includes recruitment processes, risk reduction policy and procedures, practice monitoring and management, organisation and physical property risk assessments, provision of personal safety education to all children and the delivery of specific training to all those who work with children and with the Church, record keeping, and the totally transparent, timely and effective response practices when and if child protection issues arise.”
Mr Morris said Catholics could take a greater role as child protectors by supporting community awareness events such as Bravehearts’ White Balloon Day on September 7.
“Initially, (Catholics needed to) get the past issues dealt with in a compassionate and timely way so the community can see the great works we do in Catholic schools, charitable organisations and our local churches,” he said.
“We need people trusting the Church.”
Mr Morris said the Church’s image within the community would improve by it being transparent and accountable, and “having all 28 dioceses agree to comply to a common response and management of the issues and by having an external ‘lay led’ independent ‘task force’ to deal with the past issues”.
He said the Church should also admit past wrongs and offer up all Church records to police.
Mr Morris said the Church’s image would also benefit if it adopted the Bravehearts Sexual Assault Disclosure Scheme (SADS).
“Bravehearts are well known in Australia as fearless defenders of the rights of the child – they are trusted and respected by the community, the government and police,” he said.
Ms Johnston said it was critical to the whole of society that the Church regained credibility regarding child and youth protection.
“Our society needs a strong Christian faith – it is the glue that sticks us together,” she said. “Our culture is based on Christian values; it is imbedded in our laws, our culture and our moral compass; but it is under enormous threat.
“At no time before has all of this been under so much pressure than now, not just in Australia but all over the world.
“We all need the Catholic Church to rebuild its reputation and reclaim a proud place in our society.”
Ms Johnston said 59,000 Australian children were sexually assaulted each year, and they relied on institutions such as the Catholic Church for protection and to prevent such tragedy.
