Pope's Brother Embroiled in Abuse Scandal

Read the comment policy

Showing 3 of 23 comments

This issue is not about homosexuality. There are plenty of female victims. I am one of them.

This issue is not about celibacy. Sexual abuse is about abuse of power. Non consensual sexual contact is just one of many possible methods used to achieve satisfaction from power over another.

This issue is not altered because the Church or some of the individuals involved participated in "good works". In my case, the "good work" provided unsupervised access to defenceless, vulnerable children, and meant no-one was prepared to speak up about his highly suspicious behaviour.

The Catholic Church is not the only organisation that allows child sexual abuse to flourish, protects abusers and re-abuses victims. But what makes the Catholic abuse epidemic worse than others is that the Pope demands to be treated as a moral leader for the entire world, insists on generous tax concessions, and operates in complete secrecy and largely protected from any law.

Do not believe a word the Church hierarchy say about taking this matter seriously now and doing the right thing after having learned from the past. Not only are these statements the complete opposite of the truth, they are highly offensive to victims.

My case is currently before the courts in Australia. The Church has lied, hidden evidence from the police, sent a key witness overseas because he knows too much, and is paying lawyers to obstruct and delay the trial using every technicality in the book. I have received no assistance whatsoever but am considered public enemy No 1 by the entire Catholic community for committing the greatest crime of all - telling the truth. Dozens of other victims of the same offender are too traumatised to come forward, allowing the Church to pretend they don't exist, despite having known about his reign of terror for at least the last decade.

The Church doesn't want victims to recover because then we would find our strength and our voice that were stolen from us as children. The Church benefits enormously from the silent victims not receiving counselling and remaining too traumatised to reveal the truth, to demand action, to expose the lies and the cover up.

If the Pope and the Catholic Church were at all serious about doing the right thing for victims they would immediately offer no charge independent counselling to all victims, whether or not their claims had been proven. That alone, while far short of the help victims need and deserve, would make a huge difference to thousands whose lives have been destroyed.

If you are at all affected by the plight of past, present and future victims: speak up. Write to your politicians demanding an inquiry. Write to your local Catholic leader expressing your amazement at their inability to follow Jesus' teachings. If you are Catholic: withhold your financial support until the Pope actually holds these criminals responsible for their actions and actually listens to victims and victim support networks about what help is needed.

What do you get with a nazi pope?

phillix - I'm not sure what homosexuals have to do with this. The problem is that the Catholic Church protected known pedophiles, and repeatedly and knowingly provided them with new victims - thereby facilitating mass sexual abuse of children.