Date

November 14, 2013

Frank McGuire

Despite the suffering of victims revealed by the sex abuse inquiry, some men of God still refuse to accept the damage they did.

Illustration: John Spooner.

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Betrayal of Trust reveals the cover-up that killed. The investigation report on the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations examined crime not faith, but like the journey through Dante’s Inferno, the deeper the descent, the more horrific the suffering. Many share the blame.

Perpetrators claiming to represent God committed the foulest crimes against children – formerly hanging offences – while religious denominations practised wilful blindness, protecting paedophiles through cultures of concealment. The Anglican and Catholic churches and the Salvation Army frequently took steps to conceal wrongdoing, according to their concessions and a substantial body of credible evidence.

Katie, left and Emma Foster.

Victorian governments failed their duty in orphanages and homes. Children suffered multiple betrayals of neglect or abandonment as infants; then when taken into the community’s care, they were grievously abused physically, emotionally and sexually.

Silver-haired men cradled photographs of themselves as schoolboys with sunshine smiles. A middle-aged woman presented a happy snap from her first Holy Communion depicting a young bride of Christ. Each memento was a cry from the heart yearning for innocence lost.

An 87-year-old woman revealed her childhood trauma for the first time. The existential impact of being raped as a child by a cleric was disclosed by a man who confided: ”I was only asking for help when he took advantage of me and stole my soul in a brutal act.”

Chrissie and Anthony Foster outside State Parliament earlier this year. Photo: Justin McManus

Children bear the sense of guilt and shame. A horrendous consequence is that perpetrators often remain unrepentant, while some victims do not survive.

Despite high-profile criminal prosecutions and incontrovertible evidence, victims report there are still people who refuse to accept the reality and consequences of abuse or the extent to which respected individuals concealed their knowledge. Admissions secured during the inquiry surely end the era of blind faith and cover-ups once and for all.

Australia’s highest profile Catholic leader and adviser to the Pope, Cardinal George Pell, conceded the Catholic Church placed paedophile priests above the law and destroyed documents in Victoria. When I asked him if he agreed that this systemic cover-up allowed paedophile priests to prey on innocent children, Pell replied: ”Yes, you would have to say there is significant truth in that.”

Kevin O’Donnell. Photo: Courtesy ABC

He also agreed with my proposition that moving paedophile priests to innocent parishes with access to vulnerable children resulted in more heinous crimes. ”There is no doubt about it that lives have been blighted. There is no doubt about it that these crimes contributed to too many suicides and that is an ultimate tragedy,” Pell admitted.

His successor as Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, agreed that Father Kevin O’Donnell was one of the worst paedophiles in Australia’s history. Despite victims reporting his offences to the church hierarchy in 1946, 1958 and 1986, he was moved to other parishes with innocent children. The consequences were fatal.

Chrissie and Anthony Foster presented two photographs to the inquiry. The first was a beaming family portrait showing their daughters Emma and Katie. They attended Sacred Heart Primary School in Oakleigh at the time. Unbeknown to their parents, Father O’Donnell, the parish priest, was raping the sisters. Emma was only five years old when the horror began. The subsequent photo depicted her a decade later, wrist and arms bloodied by attempted suicide.

Their father testified: ”If, following any one of these assault complaints, a church official had taken the action of removing O’Donnell from ministry – as you would assume ordained men of God would – our daughters and many other children would have been spared their lifelong torment and the crippling effects of repeated childhood sexual assault. Emma would still be alive and Katie would not be permanently crippled.”

Cast in unfamiliar roles as public inquisitors and surrogate judges, MPs searched for the truth. Whether criminal child abuse was concealed because of noble cause corruption, a misplaced sense of loyalty to a higher duty, religious organisations rationalised the most egregious conduct.

The inquiry has revealed that long reigning archbishop of Melbourne, Sir Frank Little, did not keep records of child sexual abuse allegations or speak to anyone about them and the former archbishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulcearns, destroyed documents.

Further investigations are required to determine whether the cluster of paedophile Catholic clergy in Ballarat was a coincidence or a conspiracy.

A broadly similar concern for damage control was observed in the Salvation Army. It appears it kept minimal records of even the most basic information about children in its care.

Most of the child abuse investigated happened more than 20 years ago, but the impact remains raw. On average, 23 years lapse before victims act because a complex transference of guilt can lead to an internal struggle where victims attempt to function normally while hiding what they feel is a shameful secret.

More than 80 per cent of public submissions concerned abuse by members of Catholic religious orders, stretching beyond 70 years. A substantial portion of evidence contained complaints of scandalous abuse in homes or orphanages involving Salvation Army institutions. Jewish and Islamic representative bodies testified that their communities also suffered from the scourge of child abuse but experienced difficulties even mentioning that it may have occurred.

A similar situation can be expected in other religious, social, sporting and cultural groups where offenders have easy access to children and where, for a range of reasons, abuse has been kept hidden.

Betrayal of Trust exposes how the evil that men do lives after them. It provides a blueprint for the national royal commission and insights for the community. The children were innocent, their fortitude in testifying as adults is inspiring and their courage is humbling.

Frank McGuire is deputy chair of the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations.