Response to Anne Bligh the Premier of Queensland

The Premier,

The point of this is that the Catholic church has failed, currently fails and it is inevitable that it will continue to fail to adequately ensure the safety of children in its care, to adequately compensate those harmed by clergy abuse, it has failed to adequately right the wrongs enshrined in our lives due to its failure to address the issue of abuses by its clergy through choosing to cover up, to block and to minimise the harm of their failure in the purportedly sacred guidance provided through the workings and practices of the Catholic church.

I agree with the Premier when she says that these words of the Prime Minister should be taken up directly with him as these words raise so many questions in regards the workings of our country and the gravity of the situation does call for an individual in the Premiers position to take a stance against this obeisance to a failed religious leadership attempting to continue to ignore and to minimise the extent and the depth of the damage done to our society through its failure to address the issue correctly and honestly.

Today there is a genuine wealth of proof of the harms done as well as a wealth of information on how it should be dealt with in a human, caring and restorative manner.

Many other countries have launched investigations and commissions as a direct result of these failings of the Catholic church and while it is globally understood that Australia has been particularly hard hit in this regard it remains only for someone in a position of leadership and authority to broach this issue for the sake of the children and those in our society who are harmed or affected by it.

While it must be currently accepted that the Catholic and other churches and religions are unable to implement the most basic step we as a society know to be of the utmost importance. That first and easiest of those steps is to enshrine into law the need for a single powerful child protection policy. Who but the Catholic church and its defenders would argue against such urgently needed legislation?

Why should society permit the church to have its way in the area of child safety and protection when that is the very area in which it has, is and continues to fail in.

When such an institution has gone to its knees and has failed to get up it is time for the Premiers of all our States to come together as it is only the State Premiers who can implement proper checks and balances for the sake our our society and our children until the church is in a position to be able to manage this issue in an appropriate non dysfunctional manner.

The Prime Minister missed the opportunity provided by the recent visit of the Pope to address this issue with him when he chose instead to talk of other obviously more important to him issues of governance.

What more obvious prompt was a needed than having the head of the Catholic church apologising to the world for its failure in this area and its inability to cope with it - yet the Prime Minister fails to grasp the seriousness of the matter and he then fell to his knees and has yet to get up in regards the statement he made - a statement which clearly belongs back in the dark ages when Kings and Prime Ministers bent their knees in the face of religion.

As your reply clearly points out there is a responsibility to see this matter taken up with the Prime Minister. I would like to point out that there have been many attempts to raise this important matter and that subsequently it is matter which becomes the responsibility of our political representatives and leaders to take this matter up on behalf of the people.

No person supports the current response to the clergy abuse issue by the Catholic church. This failing does have the broadest and the most pervasive and negative impact on our society and must be addressed and rectified if we are ever to provide safety for our children and provide a safe path for them into the future. This simply cannot be achieved with the current position.

The folly now is for our leadership to fail to bring about the necessary changes in this area by failing to show a proper concern for Australians [corrected spelling] and their children.

The hope, safety and future of each of our children hinges individually on the shoulders of you our elected leaders to provide adequate intervention and protection until health is restored to our society -hopefully also to the church and other religions affected.

John Brown

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Thanks Nick for your reply.

In regards the Bligh government working with the Rudd government - where does the Premier stand in regards the prime Ministers position re the following?

The Australian Prime Minister on Islamic preaching in regards wife beating and rape.

"Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia - under no circumstances."

"Australia will not tolerate these sort of remarks. They don't belong in modern Australia, and he should stand up, repudiate them and apologise."

The Australian Prime Minister on Catholicism in regards children raped by Catholic clergy.

"This is a matter for the church and I respect the internal judgements of the church. I don't stand outside the church and provide them with public lectures in terms of how they should behave...".

rgds