20/06/2006 2:46 AM email to Gary Hughes Gotcha Blog

Gary,

I was wondering if my figures and thoughts are accurate or if I have
miscalculated.

The issue of clergy abuse is one that is hidden from most people. It
seems that those of us caught up in this issue are left to fend for
ourselves. We are left to deal with those issues as a result of our
abuse, the depression, PTSD and a host of other trauma related outcomes
as well as the financial burden those things bring onto individuals and
families. Each has to deal with a Commission or such on an individual basis.

It is the dealing on an individual basis that helps keep the lid on the
truths and facts of the many cases which are out there.


I understand some
of the figures and one which comes to mind is the fact that about 3% of
cases are actually reported - with the Catholic commission based simply
or only in the Melbourne area which has dealt with more than 200 cases
those figures say that there would be approximately 6,000 individuals in
the Melbourne area alone who would be directly affected. If one carries
those figures on a 50% basis to the rest of Victoria (potentially this
is a figure of 9,000) and then to 5 of the other states brings an
estimated figure of 45,000 individuals directly affected - remember this
extended figure is a 50% extension with the actual figure most likely to
be 50% higher - these figures are for one denomination and potentially
these figures could be trebled again when taking other denominations in
to the calculation.

Each one of those individuals has to take the journey on their own, they
get token assistance in a few cases where they are able to have their
stories investigated and have it shown sufficiently that they have been
the victim of clergy or other abuses. By the time this happens they have
been both emotionally and financially drained and then finding
themselves at only the start of the process of obtaining recognition
and/or compensation. The individual stories are often too horrific for
the bulk of the population to take on board with a recent example of the
James T (
http://blogs.news.com.au/news/crime/index.php/news/comments/ritual_abuse_victim_responds/
) story of ritual abuse being acknowledged by the Independent
Commissioner into abuse within the Melbourne region being simply one of
those thousands of stories.

It is my belief that if again only a half of the story of these people
is brought to light then there would be some hope of those many
individuals gaining recognition and compensation.

This I have come to understand simply cannot be achieved on an
individual basis. There appears to be no mechanism in our system which
can bring what most ordinary people would believe to be a fair and
reasonable outcome for any one of those victims.

I believe that a foundation or public appeal for volunteers and finance
 to take up this particular cause is the only means of which I am aware
of that may have the ability to undertake the task of ensuring that
religious groups should take a degree of responsibility in this area.

I feel that through lobbying politicians and through those people in
each religion who are appalled by the acts of abuse would bring pressure
to bear from within those church groups which do actually have many
within their ranks who believe that the current systems are unfair and
do not correctly address the issues of past or present cases of abuse.

The task of bringing this situation to the notice of the public would
gain tremendous benefit and exposure through your writing and
potentially could be a source of hope and a turning point for so many
thousands of peoples lives.