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March 1st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda -
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Victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy in Victoria are calling for a Royal Commission into the church, saying they have traced dozens of suicides among people molested by Catholic clergymen in the Ballarat area.
Victoria’s Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge is under pressure over comments comparing the rights of paedophiles to the rights of victims.
“We have to balance the rights of children and families with the rights of paedophiles,” she said.
She was responding to a recommendation in a landmark report into child welfare that parents have a right to know if a convicted paedophile moves into their community.
Supporters of abuse victims went to Parliament on Thursday to ask the minister to explain her comments.
They say only a Royal Commission will make the Catholic Church’s investigations transparent following years of sexual abuse.
Stephen Woods and two of his brothers are among the many victims of two convicted paedophiles – Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale and Brother Robert Charles Best.
Father Ridsdale was jailed in 1994 for a minimum of 19 years and last August Brother Best received a 14-year jail term for his crimes.
While people like Stephen Woods now live with what has happened to them, others have not been able to bear the pain. It is now thought as many as 35 people molested in Ballarat have committed suicide.
“I went to St Pat’s Cathedral in Ballarat and I was sent to Father Ridsdale, so out of the frying pan, into the fire,” Stephen Woods said.
“And he took me up around the lake and he raped me. He was doing that within about half an hour of me seeing him.
“At that school we know that there were three to four paedophiles in activity over a number of years. And they all bashed and molested and bashed and molested, so you copped it, whether in grade three, grade four, grade five, grade six.
“You just fell victim to them.”
Call for scrutiny
The suicides stem from two offenders only – Brother Best and Father Ridsdale.
The report into child protection in Victoria by retired judge Philip Cummins has called for more scrutiny of religious organisations.
Two recommendations of the Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children report include “a formal investigation into the processes by which religious organisations respond to the criminal abuse of children by religious personnel within their organisations.”
“Such an investigation should possess the powers to compel witnesses to give evidence and be able to demand documentary and electronic evidence,” it added.
The Catholic Church says it wants to consider the inquiry’s report before commenting, while the Victorian Government says it will consider its next step.
Some victims, like Judy Courtin, say only a Royal Commission would make the Catholic Church’s own investigations transparent.
“Crimes are a matter for the state. They are not a private matter. They’re a public matter. They are a matter for the police. And to date, all of these crimes have been dealt with within the Church,” she said.
When cases are pursued in the legal system, giving evidence can be traumatic for victims.
There are other barriers, too. In a 2007 case in New South Wales, the Church successfully argued it was, in legal terms, a property trust and therefore not responsible for the behaviour of its priests.
Despite this, a class action against the Christian brothers order is about to be played out in the Victorian Supreme Court.
Barrister Vivian Waller says that her 45 male clients claim they were abused by both Father Ridsdale and Brother Best.
Ms Waller believes that number is only the tip of the iceberg.
“The Law Reform Commission tells us that the estimate is that only 10 per cent of child sexual assault cases are ever reported to the authorities,” she said.
One of those was Colleen’s husband Peter, who struggled with alcoholism and anger over what had happened to him.
She says before he died in 2004 he tried several times to tell the Church what had happened.
“[They] basically shut the door in his face and wouldn’t acknowledge that anything did happen,” she said.
Colleen does not want to be identified for family reasons. She says the abuse Peter suffered also hurt her and their four children.
“They are angry, of course they are; they haven’t got a father anymore,” she said.
“And they’ve lost a lot of years there with him, growing up as well with him, when he was in his moods and that sort of thing.”
For many victims, the road to justice and recovery is never-ending.
sexual-offences,
law-crime-and-justice,
catholic,
religion-and-beliefs,
community-and-society,
ballarat-3350,
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australia
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