The Independant Commission 05:53, 2006-Jul-1

Winning against the "Independant Commission" and the Compensation panel
is not a win for a victim. It is in fact a win for Pell and his kind and
due to the nature of the way the church has structured its
"investigation" and compensation it is permitted legally to avoid its
responsibilities towards those it has permitted to be abused.

Yes I am beginning to understand that there is no avenue through the
Police or through Politicians. A Royal Commission into the conduct of
the Church would turn out to be another white-wash. A 1500 year history
of embedded abusers in a structure such as the Catholic church and
others will have spread its ability to manipulate through many powerful
areas of society.

Peter O C may well have acknowledged ritual abuse, however the
compensation panel appears not to have seen it in the same light. We see
that they have paid a sum of money, we do not know if they will continue
to support him and assist him. My feeling is that for the sum of $33,000
they have successfully confined this to history - yes it may arise at
some later date in another court case or in another Peter O C type
investigation, however nothing will be done towards stopping further
instances.

It is in that area that something must be done otherwise the Peter O C
process will go on one victim at a time until this current crop of
victims is dead and the whole thing will go undercover until the next
time it surfaces where the same process will be deployed because it was
so successful in keeping the lid on the true depth of the problem. A
small number of victims will be compensated in a small way after they
have been gristed through the mills of the process - little will have
been achieved towards protecting the next generations of altar boys or
of changing the way the church deals with these issues.

The facts of this case and in every other case of far as I can see can
be simply put as:

Victim of abuse through the church.
Church caught out.
Church pays out.
Church is legally exonerated and indemnified against further legal
processes from this victim.
Church avoided the need to actually address the problem.
Church has had it confirmed that it has legal permission to allow
further abuses so long as it
a) does not get caught out
b) is prepared to pay a token amount to hold its position

These cases hit the headlines and fade in a few days, the victim is
simply left with his agony whilst others are groomed for the next round.

Nothing is done to break the cycle within the churches, they are not
subject to the normal legal process, in this regard they are a secretive
society which is intent on keeping its dirty laundry within its ranks.

I need to ask you how many instances are there of bishops, priests nuns
etc who have come forward and identified abusers? How many have come
forward and identified victims?

I have yet to see an instance of this in any of the articles I have read
on this topic and that includes the USA, Mexico, South Africa, South
America, Europe, Great Britain and New Zealand.

When reading the initial information provided by Peter OC it was obvious
that the system was heavily geared towards "dealing" with abusive
priests - where are the outcomes of those dealings? These are obviously
handled "in-house". One would have to expect that at least one of those
must have known of other abusers - are there any instances of this on
record? or are those identified this way simply processed from within
thus keeping the whole thing well under cover and within the control of
the church.

Until we can come to a point where we get past the need to tell and
retell the horrific stories of the victims of this and actually address
the processes put in place by the church, until it is forced or
pressured to address the problem through allowing class actions against
the church or a diocese, removing the legal time limitations or perhaps
a genuine (if that is possible) independent investigation which takes
into account those stories of the 200 victims Peter OCs commission has
dealt with, one that follows up on those victims and documents their
outcomes, one which also investigates the processes within the churches.
Till then little will be achieved save a series of pyrrhic victories for
those who have unfortunately nowhere else to go to obtain even a
semblance of justice or compensation.