Church apology "too little too late"

Description: Response to Archbishop Hart on his belated apology
An apology with no return to health, wealth, prosperity and social inclusion is worthless. In fact it is more than worthless it is a disgrace and a slap in the face of humanity.

At last Denis Hart is calling sexual abuse a crime but in my opinion the way the Catholic Church has treated the most important asset of this country, our children, is nothing short of terrorism and worldwide terrorism at that.

A person that explodes a bomb in a crowded place and kills 100's of people is called a terrorist. When a priest wheedles his way into a child's psych as a Paedophile does; and he starts with his grooming he leaves a deadly cocktail of guilt, low self worth, desperation and anger.

All primed with a slow burning fuse which may not explode for 40 yrs, hence Denis Harts' referral to how old the crimes are. The person that has planted this deadly cocktail will still be called Father, much to the consternation of those that he has ABUSED. Although these victim's may have taken 40 yrs to disclose they will have suffered this abuse many, many times over, triggered by any number of a thousand triggers over the 40 yrs.

This is called Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD) and it is a cruel and debilitating world recognised side affect of abuse, and that this is another form of abuse which owes its perpetuation to the Church and makes me wonder, are they Christian??????

When Australians realise that no person has the right to be any closer to God than any other Australian then the world will be a SAFER PLACE for our children


Ian Lawther

Archbishop apologises to sex abuse victims

Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop has apologised to church sex abuse victims for what he describes as an unacceptable evil.

In a letter to parishioners, Archbishop Denis Hart said continuing reports of abuse, including the latest investigations in Europe, are causing great distress and shame for the Church.

He offered a sincere and unreserved apology for what he describes as a grave evil.

"This has been one of the saddest times in my 43 years of priesthood," he said.

"I'm determined to work on this issue, to address sexual abuse, to deal with the offenders and to bring care to the victims and I and all the people of Melbourne have a great regard for our good priests who are working so hard in often very difficult circumstances.

"I consider it most important that I write to the people, explain to them how outraged I am and try and give the complete facts so that people can understand the Church is really determined and absolutely resolute to work on this matter."

But Wayne Chamley from the Broken Rites victims support group says individual apologies from bishops do not go far enough.

"We've never seen all of the bishops collectively make a statement," he said.

"And there's been constant revelations of individual bishops covering up the activities of paedophiles. Not a single bishop has ever stepped down.

"They still seem to think that they can get by by going down the road of individual responses by individual claimants with offering some pittance of compensation for people whose total life has often been blighted by their experiences of a paedophile priest."

A Church spokesman says 150,000 copies of the letter have been made.

He says it is up to individual priests whether they read out the letter during mass or leave it to parishioners to collect a copy.

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