JohnB Submission to Victorian Inquiry re Catholic Abuse

Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations

Submission "“ John Anthony Brown

 

John A. Brown
Toowoomba
QLD 4350

 

September 7, 2012

0756412311

John@tfyqa.biz

I am a survivor of sexual abuse by multiple nuns from before 4 years of age through to 8years of age and of violent rape by pedophile priest Kevin O'Donnell at age 8. On the following submission there are references to events occurring outside the state of Victoria which are provided to give a better understanding and to show that these abuses and their covering up as well as the failed response are intricately linked across the country and across the world and are inseparable from events which have occurred within Victoria.

 

Recently the Queensland government provided the name of a Toowoomba community service as a support agency in the preparation of a complaint to the Queensland inquiry including complaints of the community service recommended by the Queensland government. Events such as this can be jolting through to traumatic exasperation and desperation. This is not an uncommon occurrence as will be seen throughout the following. I have evidence of other events which have not been related here.

This recent event raised previous abuse issues and subsequent concerns over the safety of my son and my brother as a result of my own experience educating me as to what to expect when speaking out.

Understanding how this takes places has been essential in my survival and at this point in time there has been no assurances from the inquiry and no responses to my emails inquiring about this aspect of them. - Emails below.

For myself and my family and for others with similar experiences there are no safeguards in place or protection from re-experiencing similar; that aspect must be addressed.

I do not unless my circumstances are critical avail myself of government or community services due to this issue.

The problem of being referred to by the Queensland Government inquiry to TASC (Toowoomba Advocacy Service) when I know that my previous dealings with them, my counselling, government job services have all been tainted with the problem of having full knowledge that Toombs as an ex Jesuit has sworn an oath to a foreign country and to his religious order and to his religion that authorises him to act first and foremost in the interests of the church and that he can be authorised to use mental reservation, to lie to deceive or to take any action he deems will obtain the best interests of the church and also to be able to be forgiven immediately if those actions can be deemed to be sins and thus coming under the jurisdiction of the church.

This is the cover up in action and it functions fully and completely within government and community services often at the expense of the tax payer. This issue can be encountered in any area of policing, health, community, government politics or business and is. [1, 2. 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 21, 22, 27, 28, ] . My experience with Toowoomba mental health is an experience in detail of just such an occurrence that placed my life in serious jeopardy and cost me most dearly health, well being and financially and want to ask that a full and thorough investigation of the events surrounding that be independently investigated as this involved the Magistrates court, Queensland police and others and that charges be laid wherever they are able to be.

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	re: Inquiry into the handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations II
Date:	Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:59:13 +1000
From:	contact@tfyqa.biz <contact@tfyqa.biz>
To:	Ingrid.Johnson@parliament.vic.gov.au

The Inquiry into the handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other

Organisations

 

I declared my life open in 2002 in an attempt to control what was

happening as a result of my disclosure in Toowoomba of being a survivor

of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

 

Since that time I have developed what I believe to be the largest piece

of continuous documentation of the experience of myself and many others

in their dealings with the entire spectrum of the Catholic church, its

charities, education and health services across Australia as well as in

person contact with each of the provided restitution or compensation

processes provided by the church as well as interactions with church

lawyers, the Catholic laity, assorted scammers and scoundrels. I believe

there is no other set of documentation like it or as extensive as this.

 

I would like to present to the people of Victoria and the people of

Australia as well as the Victorian inquiry. The core of these is more

than10 years of documentation as evidence of the crimes against

humanity and the deliberate dangerous treatment of survivors and the use

an abuse of religion in covering up the sexual and other crimes of

Catholic clergy and the clergy of other religions.

 

I would like to discuss the protection of a number of people referred to

in this documentation as well as the potential to have a direct referral

to credible and accountable authorities should any issues arise for

myself, my family and others of concern from the release of this

documentation.

 

NOTE:This data is distributed globally in a number of storage locations

and mediums as distributed backups to ensure its survival and

accessibility on into the future should that be required.

 

An acknowledgment of receipt of this email is requested by return email.

 

 

regards

 

John A Brown

Toowoomba QLD

john@tfyqa.biz

0756412311

 

 

 

 

The following information is questions answered from page 4 of the Submission Guide.

 

Reporting the Abuse;

 

1. Could you tell anyone about what happened?

I did tell my mother at the time the abuse occurred and I have been able to tell people about the incidents that occurred to me and have done so since they first occurred.

 

2. Did you feel discouraged from reporting the abuse?

Yes, I was excluded from local sporting groups and received physical beatings in front of Nun's, by Nun's and local parishioners. Beatings were also given by older kids that I went to school with when I didn't keep my mouth shut about my abuse.

 

I was forced to cover up an injury to my foot through having to go along with the story that I was pigeon toed. My injury was referred to as pigeon toed even by Catholic neighbours who were aware that the injury was the result of being forced into a car by parishioners who had beaten and punched me as a result of attempting to flee from being abused; my ­ was repeatedly slammed in the car door where the locking mechanism injured the top of my foot. This injury persist to this day and is a daily reminder of the fact that I and likely many others have been denied proper access to unaffected justice, medical services, policing, politicians and others in the community who are religiously bound to maintain the cover up of crimes by their clergy.

 

3. Who did you tell about what happened?

I told my mother and Herbert Henry Kemp(Knights of the Southern Cross) I tried to get assistance from anyone I could tell but this did not get me anywhere except punishment generally in the way of a beating. When I was raped at age 8 by the visiting priest, I tried to get away and was caught each time by local parishioners and beaten, kicked and had my foot slammed into the car door as they forced me into a vehicle. My foot was slammed with the door many times causing ongoing damage and pain to this day.I have never received help with the damage to my foot to this day.

 

4. How long after the abuse occurred did you tell someone?

I spoke to my mother soon after the first incident when I was approx 3.5 years of age and on a number of other occasions but it wasn't until I was raped at age 8 that my mother got support from a member of the Knights of the Southern Cross who assisted us until he died when I was 14. The local policeman could not be used as he was not catholic and couldn't be trusted.

 

5. Did you tell the religious body or other organisation about the abuse?

Yes, I was very vocal about the abuse to anyone that did or didn't want to listen but there was no support from anyone in the local parish.

 

6. If you delayed in telling or reporting what prevented you from disclosing earlier?

There was a delay in reporting up until I was 8 years of age as my mother didn't know how to go about it.Mum was scared of what would happen to us and she had no support from anyone. Looking back at what things were like, I totally understand the way my mother handled it.

 

Response to the disclosure;

 

7. What was the initial response?

There was no positive initial response to the disclosure from the Catholic Church or Parish/local community.

One incident after the initial disclosure was a beating that was ordered by the local priest by my dad. My dad was ordered to whip me with a stock whip, as I was 'the spawn of Satan' which he did. This was common knowledge and conversation in the clergy, nuns and the Catholic congregation.

This was one of so many.

 

8. If there was an investigation of the abuse, how was it conducted?

There was no initial civil investigation as the policeman at the time was not Catholic and could not be trusted according to Catholic neighbours, nuns and clergy. The Church supposedly removed the priest Kevin O'Donnell from service at the time but my mother was informed that he was working in another area.

 

9. What meetings or other interactions did you have with the organisation?

The local schools were run by the Catholic Church so there were plenty of interactions with them as I went to school there. This did not go very well for me as I was vocal and was beaten regularly.

 

I was made to assist in loading baggage and boxes of records into the boot of the car carrying the bishop who came to fix things up. He stated that he would look after everything,he didn't.

 

10. Were you encouraged or supported to report your abuse to the police? Did you do this? If not, why not?

I was supported by mum and Herbert Henry Kemp.

Attempting to disclose led to being branded as a sinner that would spend eternity in hell; the spawn of the devil, the child of Hitler. I was deemed accident prone by clergy as this allowed them to account for any physical signs of injury and gave them the ability to blackmail by saying that they would beat me and no-one would believe me as I was accident prone.

 

I was belittled and humiliated publicly from the pulpit before the entire Catholic congregation as well as openly spoken of as an example of the worst evil in the world in the classroom by both priests and nuns using references to god, the bible and Catholic doctrine to support their position, authority and to reinforce their covering up "“ this practice spread across the entire Catholic community who were praised and rewarded when they caused pain, humiliation or shunned me from inclusion in activities.

 

Examination marks and behaviour grading were deducted for attempting to speak out.

 

Notes were often delivered to my home from nuns by older family members or other class mates instructing my father to beat me for made up misbehaviour on occasions when I attempted to speak truthfully of my abuse. This ploy provided the ability to forge notes to cause a beating.

 

The confessional was used to target me through tale telling by any who simply wanted to participate in the bullying that was carried out and supported by clergy, nuns and members of the Catholic community as well as others in the town where my evilness was a matter of common knowledge. I was forced to carry bread, groceries, alcohol and other wants such as filling wood boxes,empty bins, sweeping up, lighting and stoking fires and acting as an altar boy by nuns and priests as a daily punishment for my evil behaviour. The same bizarre circumstances and capabilities remain valid and functional today throughout the Catholic culture and are very often defended through the claim that questioning the psychological outcomes of an abusive psychologically overpowering circumstance is deemed as an attack on Catholicism or that it hinders the freedom to practice their religion. This was often referred to with statements claiming that there are many moral and ethical issues involved although thankfully we are not hearing that so often from the Catholic community as the disclosure of these crimes has simply overwhelmed their ability to maintain this form of hypocrisy in the public forum.

 

I was forced through beatings, deprivation, exclusion and other forms of blackmail into the daily collection of eggs for both the presbytery and the convent and at times to fetch them milk from neighbours.

 

I was held up as a public example of how anyone who spoke out would be treated. A psychological understanding of these practices and their resulting lifelong commitment forced onto those others in the classroom and community to continue the cover up of these abuses as to disclose or to defend the victim would and does deny them their just reward of a place in heaven. Any transgression committed by a fellow class mate or family member was readily forgiven through the confessional. Many of the obnoxious, delusional and toxic results and distorted beliefs remain steadfast with siblings to this day.

 

One nun had a habit of purporting to tame or calm me by clutching me and pulling my head into her crotch where she dry humped herself against my forehead; it was not until many years later that I realised she was masturbating herself on my forehead "“ this was regular occurrence as I was such a naughty boy and need this additional treatment and caring. In more recent times I became aware that similar shunning and branding, blaming and blackmailing through guilt continues today in Catholic schools and church communities. This practice was referred to by the psychologist Toombs' in my 2009 interview [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] with him who referred to the practice as being current. Carelink psychologist Susan Sharkey [9, 10] refers to this also as being current in my interview with her around 2005; both of these people displayed or carried out forms of this deceptive thinking and practices themselves.

 

A more criminal set of circumstances arose again when I was 14 when a younger sister reported to my mother that she had been interfered with by a new priest Desmond Cameron on St Patrick's Day 1962 (Cameron by the way was in a Catholic retirement home in a beach side location where I contacted him and spoke of events on that and the following days with him in 2009). He has never been publicly accused or investigated to my knowledge despite the fact that the beating and kicking that Herbie Kemp received that day when he attempted to speak with the priest caused his death some 8 days later being a part of my original report to Victorian Police around 2005 and a more recent attempt to have the matter properly investigated by Victorian police. The first attempt at reporting this resulted in my being informed by the policewoman that I was simply an arsehole who had nothing better to do than to cause trouble for the church and that she had closed the matter. This was after initially being informed via my counsellor that Victorian police had informed her that they took the matter seriously and that they would investigate as there was no statute of limitations on murder.

 

I had been provided with the safety of a refuge from incessant bullying by an older brother with Herbert Kemp and his brother Maurice at their home further up the street.This became a more permanent situation with me being provided with my own room after I was violently raped by Kevin O'Donnell. Herbie took my matter up with the Melbourne archdiocese via his position in the then secret men's group known as the Knights of the Southern Cross where Herbie had caused the visit of the then bishop to Yea to sort matters out. These matters included the rewriting of the Wills of both Herbie and Maurie Kemp which made provision for funds for me and to the church to be available for me should I require them in the future. Both my mother and I were informed of those changes to those Wills. Herbie later changed his Will after the death of Maurie and both showed me and read to me the contents of his Will which included provisions for my mother, siblings and neighbours children. I was to receive Herbies possessions as he had no other family as well I was to receive enough funding to take me to many of the places Herbie had visited in his travels and when with the JC Williams Theatre company when it travelled; as well there was to be funds to educate me at an English private school/University. On Herbies death in Melbourne where he had been transported to from the Yea hospital by the priest who enabled his beating and who gave him his last Catholic rites my mother was informed that Herbie had changed his Will on his deathbed leaving everything to the church. My father attempted to speak with the local policeman Bill Ellison a member of the nights of the Southern Cross about the death of Herbie; Bill Ellison informed my mother that my father would be excommunicated if he continued to speak about Herbie.

 

The effects on children of being raised in an environment that is predominated with blackmail, bribery, secret reporting and an entirely Catholic centric environment that was openly above civil law that can be and is supported at will through the use of unquestionable doctrine or clergy or by position within the church hierarchy is possibly the most toxic environment we could devise, yet it was and remains the mainstay of the Catholic culture and are core elements in the abuse of children.

 

This manipulation of our laws and the associated conformational bias is encountered across society today indirect contravention of our national obligations under article 18:"Freedom of religion and belief" of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which in its introduction states "It includes the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of one?s choice including theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs. Discrimination and vilification on the basis of religion and belief discourages participation in the community and may infringe the right to freedom of religion and belief.". This submission comprehensively and factually describes and provides evidence of repeated and consistent breaches of this agreement in many levels of government, policing and health services ad clearly shows how this discriminates and discourages participation in the community of those with no affiliation with a theistic perspective.

 

The continuing cover up and confusion as to the causes of much of the problem encountered by all who come into contact with it has been traditionally protected through the inviolability and infallibility afforded to the church by our society and through this neglect has permitted the entire gamut of atrocities that have occurred under the fallacious and hypocritical claim of conducting good works.

 

 

11. What were the consequences for the perpetrator(s)?

At the time of my abuse as a child Kevin O'Donnell was to be removed from ministry and would never be permitted near children. He was to undergo treatment and be kept in a hospital for the rest of his life. My mother learned some months later that he had been transferred to an outer Melbourne suburb.Information obtained from Bernard Barrett of Broken Rites indicates that O'Donnell was resident in Seymour at the time of my abuse and was transferred from there to Dandenong where he was known to have abused children and was referenced by Susan Sharkey in our conversation where she also identified the reasons why he was kept in ministry by the church. [4].

 

Susan Sharkey has been the subject of numerous complaints [3, 4]among these is the manner in which she represents herself claiming when questioned that her interviews are not that of a psychologist. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by nuns(disclosed in my initial report to Peter O'Callaghan) it is abhorrent that Susan Sharkey as an ex-nun should be tasked in the role of counselling or supporting survivors of abuse by nuns; her habit of retraumatising survivors through asking if their abuser was circumcised is a known ploy to send the survivor back into their abuse as a means of silencing and habituating them into their abuse "“ this is clear and evident within the recording. As well this form of abuse is often a precursor to survivor suicide; a fact that must be to Sharkey as a qualified psychologist working in this field.

 

Sharkey is currently in the process of taking legal action against the author of the above article for defamation including aspects mentioned above as a means of forcing this information out of the public arena. The recording will clarify the manner in which Sharkey represents herself as well as the fact that she includes on occasion an unqualified bookkeeper in those meetings.

 

Kevin O'Donnell's history can be referenced at [36] where he was convicted of around 12 crimes and spent a short time in jail for his crimes and died around 1997.

 

No action was taken against any of the nuns. A sister Germaine was threatened with being moved after an abuse incident; this is the only recollection I have of a nun being disciplined in any manner despite their physically violent, tortuous and sexual practices. Many nuns removed their habits and moved into other work areas including Carelink, Centa Care and many other welfare are as where they were given the role of assisting firstly the sexually abusive priests as in the Sharkey instance[4] and then the manipulation through blatant misrepresentation of those survivors who speak out [3, 4]. Many have been driven to contemplate and to succeed in ending their lives when they are brought back into a situation where they are once again under the control of the same broken and dysfunctional dogmatic system that enables these forms of abuse to develop and to protect themselves and the institution from any form of inspection or accountability to the law of the country.

 

When your need to uphold your religious beliefs is put before the rights of children and survivors of abuse, you are in fact exploiting the plight of children and survivors to uphold your religious beliefs and should be held to public account for your actions.

 

Quite simply, the current Catholic system of "compensation and healing" as set up and operated by the Catholic Church is an invitation for suicide or to rejoin the Catholic Church. It has no means to offer otherwise and no ability to change this attitude as it is doctrinally derived and maintained.

 

 

12. What were the effects of the response to the disclosure on the victim and other individuals?(eg. Family members, other members of the organisation)

 

Effects including; alienation, division and conflict within my own family and the subsequent fracturing and destruction of any sense of family. A distrust of all forms of authority and community leadership,  community, business and commerce positions including health providers, members of other denominations and their clergy. A disgust at the way the Victorian police force operated as well as political representatives "“ my father attempted to speak with a local political representative who it was learned was connected in some manner with the church until he was silenced by Bill Ellison of the Victorian police with the threat of excommunication.

 

Finding someone to confide in or to trust was and is almost impossible and fraught with dangers and personal risks in such a toxic environment. The pervasive of this control extends well into areas of civil law where on an occasion my employer observed and failed to intervene when I was set upon by several Catholic boys and was held against a telegraph pole with a knife at my throat simply because any intervention by police would ultimately result in me speaking of my abuse at the hands of nuns and priests. This made me vulnerable to exploitation and abuse at every level of my life by those who have a dysfunctional view on life such as that which results from a Catholic education and upbringing.

 

Caused my own father and members of my family to shun and to beat me and to treat me in the manner set by the actions and words of the nuns and priests using the weight of their religious connection and their closeness to god as insurmountable blocks to any form of dissension.

 

I was detained and questioned numerous times by Bill Ellison on a variety of suspicions. These appeared to follow closely on any public vocal outburst of mine against the church or its clergy such as when Herbie died; this set an example for the rest of the community as these events quickly became a matter of conversation and gossip throughout the town including how I was suppressed; this made me vulnerable to any manner of exploitation, intimidation and bullying in that town.

 

 

Support;

 

13. Were you supported by the organisation? If so, how?

 

As a child there was the pretence of support which inevitability and unerringly resulted in abuse. Nothing has changed except for the updating of methods and the excuses; thecycle of abuse and domination continue unabated and will result in other atrocities while it remains uninhibited and unrestricted as it currently is.

 

Since 2002 I have contacted more than100,000 Catholic bishops' nuns, priests' administrators and lay Catholics both here in Australia and across the world with the intention of establishing a safe, medically sound means of fulfilling their public promise of "Compensation and Healing". I have documented extensively these attempts at furthering a conversation in that regard with any area of the Catholic Church using audio, video, email, social media and Internet publishing. That documentation can be made available in electronic format. Many other survivors have done their own forms of documentation which show the step by step processes as well as identifying and exposing their abusers. --- want to say here about extending amnesty to those publishers as many hold info that needs to be out "“ the data that the inquiry will publish has some issues when it comes to presentation searching and ease of access therefore sites currently focusing on this topic should be able to apply to include the same protection available to the inquiry published data "“ the data remains the same "“ these sites can  discuss the issues or seek information "“ the data remains the same only the means of distribution is change, a conversation is possible among survivors and the public from the survivors perspective. It is pointless saying we have our material published yet we can only present that material via the hands of others, simply unacceptable as we survivors need that information so we can show how, what , why "“this aspect is not available with the current data delivery method. "“The Inquiry site is available to the public just as those independent sites. We are currently exposed to litigation for speaking our truth everywhere except within the confines of the parliament "“ a place few of us will ever visit in our life. The parliament affords us no protection, the parliament affords itself protection; a protection which must be extended to those giving evidence. Survivors are exposed to the power and the wealth of the church just as they have been for the past hundred and more years. Without the extension or the provision of amnesty for witnesses the government process can be legitimately described as one that like many previous throughout history have simply identified and disclosed the identity of those speaking out and in that exposing them to the dangers posed by a church which is quite willing to use any force at its disposal to silence.

 

No, there was never support from the Catholic Church at least not until approx 2003. I got some assistance with paying for counselling in 2003/2004.

 

The way the question is posed implies that there was support when in fact "“ calm down John "“ step into it from the aspect that got it started "“ them offering he help and getting help.

 

Arrangements for support were made by Herbert Kemp with a record being established with the archdiocese of my abuse. I believe these records were stolen in 1996 (ref Leder email) by Helen Last of IGFA (In Good Faith & Associates) and other names who used the information in them to head-hunt me and also used these files to negotiate a settlement with the church over both her wrongful dismissal from the archdiocese Pastoral office where she had been engaging in inadequately covering up the crimes of clergy via connections forged within the Victorian police force for many years (It is understood that these connections are still in existence) and the theft of confidential victims files. I believe others have been hunted in a similar manner causing suicide or attempting suicide as a result of the unexpected contact or subsequently through further abuses of trust [35]. A follow up of all clients will show a trail of damaged and harmed and further abused people. I am aware of a number of those abused and denigrated and humiliated by the unregulated faux professional and cultist processes they were subjected to including the inclusion of a Catholic priest into a conference/meeting where survivors of clergy abuse were advised only during the introduction that there was a Catholic priest in their midst; many felt intimidated and violated by this experience. My questioning this actions resulted in the most vile and direct attack on myself by Helen Last where she deployed her intimate knowledge of my abuse and her awareness of my weaknesses and vulnerabilities to abuse me "“ I sought assistance from my counsellor as I understand

 

The effects of being forced into public disclosure in 2002 were diverse ongoing and persistent in every area of life. Protecting your own child from the dangers of this religion places you into conflict with all of Christianity a great deal of policing, health and community in which you have simply become an object to plunder and to exploit for the causes of others.

 

 

14. Did you receivecounselling or psychological help? If so, who provided it?

No, not until I followed this up myself in approx 2003/2004 with a psychologist, Sandy Collins, who I saw for2 or more years. I was reimbursed by Carelink on approval of my claim by Peter O'Callaghan after he visited Toowoomba to interview me. I had become uneasy with my situation regarding the provision of counselling services via Carelink due to the immediate conflict I encountered upon contacting them and felt obliged to stand back from the services of Sandy Collins when I observed that there were difficulties with payment for her services from the church via Carelink [email 23/06/2007 3:43 PM Re: Payment of fees for John Brown below]. I am currently seeing Dr June Henry of Toowoomba whose services I obtained via the government provided visit scheme as I have been unable to engage in any productive conversation with The Independent Commission, church lawyers, the archdiocese of Melbourne, Carelink, CentaCare, Toowoomba Catholic Education, Towards Healing, St Vincent de Paul, Catholic Social Justice Council, bishops and other titled in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Tasmania, Adelaide,Darwin, Brisbane, Cairns, Lismore, Bathurst, Toowoomba, The Vatican and other locations to no avail. As at 23/08/2012 Emma Furness of Gosford and I are attempting to engage again with Tim Brennan of Towards Healing and Giuseppe Lazzarotto the Papal Nuncio to Australia to seek a safe and proper pathway through what is an obviously dangerous and damaged system that has forgotten how to interact with fellow human beings in a civil and appropriately humane manner.

 

Around 2008 I attempted to engage members of parliament of all walks, political parties, the Prime Minister, The Queen, the Governor General and Attorneys General across Australia as well as the Australian press when I contacted them individually with the following communication [37]. I endeavoured to convey concerns about all areas of this issue with the Queensland Commissioner for Police, the Minister for Police and fellow Commissioners only to be met with a rush to finish the meeting; no further communication was forthcoming or able to be established [38]. I attempted to engage with Queensland police over my concerns re the Catholic Church mandating secrecy in instances of child sex crimes only to be met with an unsatisfactory response.[13].

 

 

15. Did you receive an apology or an acknowledgment of the abuse you had suffered?

Yes, I received an email from John Usher apologising on behalf of George Pall for the rape at hands of Kevin O'Donnell. [see below email "RE: coming forward - Cardinal Pell"]

 

16. How adequate was the support that was offered?

The support that I did have was good but they came up against it as well as it was against the Catholic Church.

 

Result;

 

17. Did the religious or other organisation accept responsibility for what happened?

No

 

18. What was the consequence for the perpetrator(s)?

I learned that the perpetrator had been jailed for a short period around 1999.

 

19. Were you offered an apology, compensation or other forms of assistance? If so, were there any conditions attached to accepting that compensation or assistance?

A report was sent by my psychologist in2005 to Peter O'Callagan QC. He responded reporting that he had never had such a comprehensive report and advised that my claim would be fast tracked through with the recommendation that I receive the maximum compensation available. I was provided with an email apology via a third party acting on behalf of George Pell. As a result of questions I posed to Peter O'Callaghan and the unprofessional actions of Carelink personnel that original assessment undertook a number of vague changes; the lack of answers from Peter O'Callaghan and the complete lack of acknowledgement of recent costs to me and others matters began what has resulted in 7years of broken dysfunctional sporadic support, vilification, character assassination, avoidance and obfuscation from the Melbourne Response resulting in years of endeavouring to establish a conversation through any possible channels to no avail. Those endeavours continue today as this submission is being written with the most recent attempts involving the engagement of the papal Nuncio in the past weeks.

 

20. As a result of your complaint to the religious or other organisation what actions were taken by them?

I was not kept up to date on any actions taken.

 

21. How long did it take to get a result?

I am still searching for a way to get a result "“ see above.

 

22. Were you satisfied with the process in dealing with the complaint and/or the result?

Words do not capture how dissatisfied I am with the process and how I am still dealing with the resulting trauma and dubious and unprofessional processes of the Melbourne response. Any form of complaint goes into its own internal loop which results in being referred to the entity you wish to lodge a complaint about the arbitrator of any complaints. While the Melbourne Response publicly gives the appearance of being a legal entity operating on legal principles and best practice it has been my experience that neither statement can withstand genuine scrutiny.

 

 

23. What was your view of the effectiveness and adequacy of any compensation, either offered or received?
The offered compensation took no account of reality and would have amounted to less than the costs incurred to me in one year at the time of lodgement of my complaint with the Melbourne response. See 19.

 

 

 

24. What were the effects of the result on you and other individuals? (eg. Family members and supporters)

 

The effects are global, lifelong and all pervasive. Every individual has an opinion with regard to sexual abuse as well as sexual abuse by clergy, however it appears that only Catholics require victims of childhood sexual abuse by its nuns and priests to forgive them as a first step in what they perceive to be healing. The healing on offer Carelink via the Melbourne Response(and IGFA) is faith healing and has little relevance to current understandings of psychology and the needs of survivors.

 

Affected in all areas of my life including many interactions with government bodies where the perceived rights of the religious over-ride the legal rights of the general population.

 

Around2006 my son who was living with his mother rang me as he was concerned as he was to be alone with his grandmother for the first time in his life and that his grandmother was making peculiar comments about that. He had been educated by both his parents since and incident when he was 4 years old and subsequent incidents that he was never to be alone with any of his extended family and in particular his grandmother. He felt afraid of being caught out speaking with me about it.

I attempted to contact A sergeant Strohfledt at Toowoomba police that evening and was told to call back around 7.30 in the morning. On the following morning I drove to the house where my son was meant to be and knocked on the door and his window and was not able to raise anyone. I rang his mother to ask where our son was; she shouted angrily and accusingly at me and hung up.

I rang Toowoomba police and spoke with Strohfeldt and explained the circumstance and asked for assistance to find my son. I informed Strohfeldt again I was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by catholic clergy and knew that he was aware that my in-laws were related to the then bishop of Toowoomba Bill Morriss. After waiting longer than I was told to wait for a return call I rang Toowoomba police and again spoke with Strohfeldt who was reluctant to act; I demanded that they locate my son due to the risk he was at of sexual abuse due to repeated statements by his grandmother that it was her right to fuck my child any time she wanted - a statement that was echoed by her son and her then living companion.

I knocked on the door and window again and went back to my car with the intention of ringing Toowoomba police again when a car carry 3 men drove a hundred meters or so past me in the street and parked on the same side as I was. A man began to walk towards my car on the street while another ran in a crouched position from the passenger side of the car with his hand on a holstered gun. I watched the man approaching from behind the car as well as the man crouch running along the fence line towards me - I was in fear for my life due to the position taken up by the man with the gun who was crouched by the front fence of a nearby property. I turned on a note taking recorder in the hope that should I be shot and killed that there would be some evidence as to what had occurred - I left a message asking that someone should please find my son. I was intensely focused on the man with the gun when the other man knocked on the drivers side front window and said he was with Toowoomba police - I was unsure how to respond and did so once I realised that he would be in the firing line if the man with the gun began shooting.

I spoke with both policemen and asked them to enter the house to check for my son. I informed that that he would be either here or at his grandmother's house a few blocks away.I also explained again the reasons for my concerns. The police knocked very loudly on the door and shouted - there was no response or sign of my son. I asked the police to go quickly to the house referred to above as I believed my son was at risk. I was told that they were going nowhere. I drove off allowing time for the police vehicle to follow me. I was arrested in the most unprofessional, thuggish and brutish manner outside my sons' grandmother's house.

Iwas detained at Toowoomba police station from around 8am until approximately 7pm. I was threatened with being transported to Brisbane because for some reason bastards like me were treated more harshly than in Toowoomba according to the police officer whom I fist spoke to at my son's address. I was not formally interviewed or asked to make a statement at any time nor was I visited or assessed by anyone other than the officers involved with my arrest and booking at Toowoomba Police station.

I was taken from the Toowoomba Police station to the Toowoomba Acute mental health facility where I was forcibly drugged and held for approximately 3 months. I was repeatedly forced medicated and forced to endure injections. I was interviewed a number of times by a psychiatrist who on each occasion asked about my relationship with the bishop of Toowoomba.

Despite the Mental health team being aware that I was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by a Catholic priests I found myself being interviewed by a catholic priest at a meeting arranged by a woman who was permitted to freely mix and to evangelise the patients. The only response from the mental health team to my extreme trauma as a result of this meeting was to drug me more heavily and to threaten and to intimidate me.

I understood that I was severely cognitively impaired as a result of the drugs forced on to me, I was forced and repeatedly threatened with force to ingest these drugs despite many protestations and requests for reviews and attempts at explanation,

A male nurse engaged me in conversation with regard to the development of a web site for a football or team that he was involved with. I gave him professional advise and instructions as to what procedure he should follow as that was a part of my business. On several occasions he informed me that I should not refer o anything in regard the bishop of Toowoomba as I would be detained indefinitely if I continued to speak of those things when asked. I attempted and failed at that several times. I spoke with the male nurse and he informed me that that is what I need to do as they will not let me out of there while I speak of those things.

I was released in a poor state of health and suffered a number of collapses in the first few days after my release. I had been provided with a strangely obsessive Catholic woman as my case manager. Speaking with her on the phone one evening from my office overlooking the Toowoomba Catholic cathedral I mentioned the bishop of Toowoomba to her. Her response was to call me back after only a few minutes to advise me that a warrant had been issued for my arrest.

I left Queensland and traveled to Victoria in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain professional assistance. I contacted my new case manager Andrew Day and after several conversations I was able to be spoken toas a human being thrust into a set of unwanted circumstances. Andrew informed me that the arrest warrant expired in 30 days and was unlikely to be re issued. I returned to be near my son after 29days.

I spoke of these events to DSS Paul Hart Officer in Charge Child Protection Unit Toowoomba District after he visited me on instruction from the Premier of Queensland. Whilst DSS Hart was able to assist me with a number of issues including events surrounding my joining the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers Parade, a threat against my life, information as to the whereabouts of a possible unit dealing with crimes by clergy and with a probable breach of justice in my dealings with the Toowoomba Parole authority however he informed me he was not able to address any of the issues surrounding my incarceration in the Toowoomba Mental health facility, the dangerous driving by a police officer, the false statements or the spurious events surrounding my arrest and the trumped up bogus driving charges.

I was fined $800 by the "Pissing"magistrate - a woman of local folkloric fame who literally jiggled and giggled in her seat when dealing with men charged with pissing in a park or dark alley in the early hours of the morning despite police having to change their evidence and despite the lack of photographic evidence to support a number of impossible claims in sworn testimony made by the police officers.

I chose to do community work and experienced a half day of degrading treatment at a local food bank after attempting to raise several health and safety related issues with the manageress. I was contacted by the Parole authority informing me that there had been an incident  This was the matter that DSS Hart attempted to intervene in although he was unable to directly address the matters at point namely the details of the reported incident and subsequently the very existence of any incident despite the "fact" that an incident had caused the need to remove me from my designated place of community work even though the Parole authority stated that there was no incident. My complaint to the Minister including a complaint with regard to an officer of government making the claim that I was interfering with her right to practice her religion within the confines of her duty as a government officer. despite providing video evidence clearly showing this my complaint was turned down. [7, 8 Full related documentation available. see also 2]

The testimonies or the vast majority of those making a personal submission relate to incidences of child abuse within a religious environment. These testimonies describe how the religious used dogma and religion in all its forms to access children, to intimidate, to sexually abuse, to silence and to bring insurmountable pressure to bear against any that attempted to speak out; all of these things being done using the tools and tenants of religion. It is evident that religion is entwined through every aspect of the myriad abuses disclosed to this inquiry; they also describe the psychological harm they experienced as a result of their treatment as children. While a great deal of focus is placed onto the psychological needs of the survivors little or no focus is directed as to why or how religion is used in this way.

No evaluation or critique is permitted when these abuses include doctrinal or religious laws and teachings yet these are repeatedly described throughout survivor testimony as being integral to their submission and silencing and subsequent denial of justice and proper care.

Should a parent describe a personal belief to child protection authorities or police that it is not only acceptable but that it is admirable that a father should sacrifice his son or that he should offer up his girl child for rape or to take her life because of a self made contract they would be sectioned as rapidly as possible due to the obvious threat to the safety of children and others around them as well as having many questions as to their sanity and morality raised yet these very practices form a part of the Catholic teaching; Teachings which are binding on all Catholics who are subjected to sanctions should they transgress the teachings of the church. This is not a sound and normal environment in which to raise children. Children are incapable of protecting themselves in these circumstances.

Should a baker offer loaves of bread for sale that he claims becomes the body and blood of a famous historical individual upon ingestion and recommends that this ritual should be carried out regularly he would face a wide range of charges ranging from fraud, deception, ritualised cannibalism; he would be considered a danger to himself and to the community as well as a danger to children. Undertaking the same in a religious sense does not change the facts or the outcomes, it in fact adds to the hideous nature that is protected under the guise of religious freedom.

The Catholic teaching of forgiveness openly acknowledges that a child rapist can be forgiven a moment before their death and they will receive the award of eternal life and a place in heaven as a result while survivors are vilified and abused for failing or refusing to forgive their abuser as this somehow blocks the rapist from obtaining their desired place in eternity. This is more than an absurdity it is abhorrent and disgusting yet this is permitted to be engendered and practised as a part of the Catholic religion.

 

Catholic Canon laws include many areas that are the preside of civil law. Catholic Canon laws place catholic law as the supreme law; a law that is above the law of the country.While there has been substantial re-adjustment in this area there has been no restriction placed on the Catholic Church for setting laws with come into direct conflict with the laws of the country. The Catholic Church should be restricted from making or applying laws within Australia that pertain to or relate to civil crimes through having all references to civil related matters expunged without reservation from canon laws that apply to Australia.

The church teaches that its laws come before all other laws and that it alone has the right to forgive and to judge while retaining for itself the ability to obtain covert access through the confessional to information about criminal acts against children and refuses to pass that information on to civil authorities. The testimonies support the understanding that the confessional is used to blackmail and to silence through a variety of means including the ability to describe the criminal act of child sexual abuse as a sin and to then forgive that sin so that it should never be mentioned again - this is clearly an act which perverts the course of justice while subverting any attempts of control and management by government, individuals or other bodies to bring reason, accountability and justice to this situation.

The psychological effects of being raised in an environment that biblically sanctions the subversion of the law of the country is abhorrent in its own right and brings injustice to all other members of the Australian community.

The church and its followers are obviously disinclined and incapable of examining their teachings and practices in an objective manner in the light of modern day understandings of child rearing and psychology and have been this way for generations.

When ownership and dispensation of the ultimate authority of the creator of the universe is claimed in the manner that the Catholic church does while it has no actual verifiable proof that this is the actual case we are left to accept their position as a matter of trust; a trust that has been broken so deeply and so many times that it has resulted in this inquiry and the population of the country are expected to accept and to go along with what they know and see as comprehensive failure at every level of morality, ethics, best practices in child rearing and justice in society.

The church is incapable of changing direction; it is incapable of removing morally corrupt and broken teachings from its religion; it is incapable of practicing best practice in all areas of its religion while it claims best practice in its schools while retaining the broken dogmas and practices within its religion. The church is incapable of releasing children from its grasp whilst proclaiming this is for the good of the child.

A child born into Catholicism is stained with an original sin which is the result of the actions of others; male children are subjected to the unnecessary procedure of circumcision resulting in permanent genital mutilation. Children are bound into the religion through ceremonies such as first communion and ritual marriage rites of confirmation around puberty. Each is individually bound under a wide range of laws that hold among many forms of discipline the threat of social rejection, public humiliation and denigration, eternal punishment and transferred punishments to friends and family. Catholic teaching claims that children raised in this manner are able to freely choose knowing full well that they will receive instant death should they consider other than the Catholic religion. There are numerous other doctrines that include murder, rape, child abuse, infanticide, war, genocide claimed ownership of the world and ownership of individuals as Catholics that also contribute to this cover up and the crimes emanating from it.

 

If there is one piece of legislation that results from this inquiry it must be legislation that genuinely protects not just Catholic children but all the children of society from such circumstances.

The church is incapable of affording genuine protection for the rights of children to grow to adulthood where they can then be free to make an unencumbered choice for themselves as to their religious beliefs.

 

I condemn each and everyone who has brought forward a submission to this inquiry that is focused on the protection of aspects of this church or has as its agenda other than child protection and safety and redress for the survivors as many have exploited this area for their own religious aggrandisement, profit, outcome, protection of the guilty or a result that is not directly and simply aimed at the provision of justice to survivors through the application of the law of the country as the law of primacy and to the restoration of their lives and to the task of denying any chance of these horrors occurring again and should any of those attempt to speak or to act on behalf of survivors without letting them have input or the ability to speak then you they also should be condemned and publicly named and shamed and shown for the pariahs, obfuscators and exploiters that they are.

The abuse of trust of the children of society has been and remains the root cause of these abuses and will remain so while ever people and religion continue to place their failed god, their failed religion, their failed priests, their blackmailing fraudulent and dysfunctional wants and their greed for property and wealth before the human rights and the natural needs of children and the children of society.

These actions should cause the immediate stripping of any rights to operate or to function within society in any position of trust or status in society as it has been through those actions that these millions of people and their families have been wreaked with unbearable pain and suffering and harmed and abused in the most destructive and psychologically damaging ways possible.

From the ex bishop of Toowoomba who chose to cover up his own crimes involving illegal immigration and the abuse of the trust of children and other clergy who stand idly by; Peter O'Callaghan of the bogus Independent Commission into sexual abuse, Susan Sharkey of Carlink, Helen Last of In Good Faith & Associates and all those whose dishonesty and corruptly have served only their personal or religious wants and chose to work behind the scenes to assassinate the character of those they deemed unworthy as a result of a lack of belief in this failed religion or simply because of their unwillingness to participate in the life threateningly dangerous psychological obscenities of this religion which have been the main contributors to prolonging this cover up and producing an inexcusable number of suicides and a trail of damaged, branded and scapegoat's people in the process and they stand condemned here today on behalf of all those they have caused unforgivable harm to.

Corrupted police, psychologists, magistrates, judges, doctors, reporters, lawyers, human rights activists, community leaders and members of the congregations of all religions have all played their part in this spree of unrelenting crime for generations against children; the malfeasance of politicians who have put this god and his followers, their church and their religion or their want for power and money before the sexual safety of children and the jailing of the perpetrators should stand to be publicly condemned for these atrocities so that future generations can clearly see how deeply this religion has corrupted and damaged our society.

It is obvious that they and the religious of this church cannot be trusted with the responsibility of parenthood or to care and to educate appropriately the children of our society while they place these other needs before the children and so they each individually and collectively should have their rights to parenthood and input pertaining to children removed just as it was removed from those thousands of mothers who pine to this day for their kidnapped, trafficked and abused children, the raped and the traumatised, the bullied and the blackmailed, the defrauded and the deceived all of which was done in the name of their god and their religion.

It is going to take much more than mandatory reporting as there is a need to take away every opportunity for spying, grooming and blackmail that is targeted at the children and many women via the confessional. It is obvious that this religion and others are incapable of reforming themselves from this global moral failure and that they have become a clear moral danger and an obvious moral peril to society and must be treated as being toxic in any form towards children.

 

The Inquiry should take note of legislation in other countries where the right of a child are protected until the age of reason so that the child can reach the age of reason and still be to free to choose a religion without fear of retribution, shunning, ostracism or threat of religious damnation or punishment or any form of ownership or belonging to a religion -anything less does not and cannot protect the rights of a child from the predatory practices of this and other religions.

This Investigation must extend its investigations to cover the unregulated and uncontrolled support industry and it must seek to set in place proper standards that are supportive of the victims to avoid the ongoing exploitation of the victims for religious and other purposes;this must include an independent of religion external complaints process. The Catholic Church must be made to strip all references to civil crimes from its laws as it has no role in providing investigation and the delivery of justice to the people of Australia and must be denied any access to influence political and legal processes in the future. The Inquiry should remove all statute of limitations laws relating to sexual abuse and to child sexual abuse forthwith. It is a commonly held wish from survivors from across the world that the Catholic church be stripped entirely of its assets and that those assets be distributed amongst the survivors and the poor of society and that their schools and churches be turned into safe places where the laughter of children can be heard as it rightly should in a safe and protective environment.

 

My recent experience with the Queensland Inquiry when seeking to obtain independent of religion support via government services shows that this is simply not available and that no understanding is evident of the needs of the survivors let alone those who have no religious beliefs. To be directed as the first option to an organisation that has been put together by an ex Jesuit that is an active member of the local Catholic church hierarchy and appears to have involvement with matters related to Canon law and as stated elsewhere has sworn an oath of allegiance to a foreign country that demands that the laws of that foreign country reign supreme over the laws of Australia and is the subject of evidence I have provided to this inquiry is simply astounding and shows the stunning degree of ignorance of this issue within government and community bodies.

This failure is a catastrophe that is beyond description and therefore it becomes the responsibility of government to step in and to regulate at every level to enforce this failure into compliance with our laws and the spirit of our laws or to banish them from all areas of commerce and society as a part of the common obligation we as decent and caring human beings hold towards our children.

Your god, your religion and your despicable actions stand publicly condemned and shall remain so while justice and restoration eludes any who have a legitimate claim to the proper lawful justice that should be available to all in this country.

Forde Inquiry 1999 "Other potential areas of bias involve religion, ethnicity and culture; for example, in indigenous families, alternative care within the extended family is part of a cultural norm. Careful and sensitive supervision, even of experienced intake officers, will, in some measure, reduce the risk of biased assessment."

 

 

Question form responses:

 

 

 

1. Briefly describe how you felt during and after the whole response process?

The process is incomplete. The entire response lacked civility, dignity, clear purpose and did not have the ability to look at the problems or issues from other than a failed religious perspective.

 

2. Was your complaint adequately investigated?

No. An adequate investigation would have been conducted in a professional and independent manner.

 

3. Were your complaints upheld by other people or official bodies?

Not according to later statements by Peter O'Callaghan once I began to question his methods and the methods of Carelink.

 

4. Were you satisfied with the outcome of the handling of your complaint?

Not at all! There was no avenue for appeal or to question assumptions made by Peter O'Callaghan. There was no opportunity to bring forward witnesses who do support my claim.

 

5. Did you have an avenue for appeal if you were not happy with responses to your complaint?

All attempts at lodging a complaint were directed to the archdiocese which simply referred back to the entity that was being complained about.

 

6. Did you have an avenue for appeal if you were not happy with counselling, support and pastoral care responses?
   
   
   While an avenue appeared to be available I did not experience an occasion where my concerns were upheld. Many instances of complaint and question simply went unanswered.

 

7. Did you have an avenue for appeal with advertised support groups, collectives etc if you were not happy with counselling or support responses?

No, since complaints re Carelink, Centacare and the Melbourne Response were referred back to The Melbourne Response.

Complaints via the Towards Healing process inevitably led to statements such as "our hands are tied", or "not in our jurisdiction".

Complaints via the Catholic Australian Justice Council were not responded to after taking initial details.

Complaints to St Vincent de Paul as to the unavailability of support available to survivors of clergy abuse were met with the same response when seeking support that all matters relating to clergy


sexual abuse be referred to the bishop

Complaints of undue delay and a lack of response from Toowoomba Archdiocese Offices, the Toowoomba Catholic Education Centre and Centacare Toowoomba re obtaining a meeting with the then


current bishop (who was the stated support person for clergy sexual abuse survivors across Australia), to discuss progress of my case and other matters were obfuscated, deferred, delayed or ignored.



Each occasion I rang it seemed that I had called at a "particularly busy time"as each specialist was inevitably "in transit" between other urgent matters, and one then going on urgently needed leave. (As


an aside I was intrigued by the use of technology by the Toowoomba Catholic Education Centre in that the vehicle of the man who was on urgent leave must have driven itself to work and home again


on most days over the next month of his leave while phone calls asking to speak with him were responded to with the statement that he was still on leave only for him to go on further leave and to be


subsequently publicly sacked by the bishop of Toowoomba. It seems he was able to quickly pick up employment in the nearby Brisbane diocese in mirroring of the way pedophile priests are moved


when problems are pending.).

 

8. Did you take your dissatisfaction complaints elsewhere?

Yes. To many areas of the Church across Australia and in many areas of life including politicians, police, Catholic public charity, justice and support bodies, diocese and archdiocese across Australia.

 

9. Who did you make these complaints of dissatisfaction to?

To anyone that would listen.

 

10. Was the complaint resolved to your satisfaction? If not, why not?

A variety of complaints including medical and legal malpractice have yet to be resolved. Why not? Because it appears complaint resolution works on the basis of what sounds good at the time, or what sounds like a good excuse blaming someone else further up the chain of command in order to not progress and complaint further.

 

11. Did you find these processes unnecessarily legalistic?

There was no pretension towards upholding the law to expedite justice except occasional pleas by some for intervention by government and police to resolve broken ideologies and repeated failed internal attempts to resolve many moral and ethical issues.

 

12. Do you know of any policies or rules or ways of doing things in the religious or other organisation that could discourage or hinder or stop a person reporting child abuse to the State authorities? If yes, can you please describe these?

The structure of many Australian press articles for a number of years relayed the message that those who attempted to deal with the Church would be damaged or irreparably harmed in the process and that statute of limitations applied to crimes in many areas. This style of church promotional material was widespread throughout the Australian press as are many statements by bishops today. These statements offer no opportunity for public discussion, feedback or refutation by those whose experiences do not match with the line of spin being presented to the general public in this way.

The policy of Catholic Canon Law claiming authority over all powers of law enforcement regarding criminal matters such as the reporting of child sexual abuse and other criminal matters must not be permitted. The policy or rule of the Church declaring criminal action as a sin and thus subject to the authority of the Church has been and remains a major impediment in the provision of justice; each of the many references to criminal matters should be stripped from Catholic Canon Laws when they apply to Australia.

 

13. Were you ever visited by people who represented the religious or other organisations but did not explain their role?

I have had dealings with a number of people who have dual roles "“within the community and within the Catholic Church hierarchy and the Catholic legal system. Not only do they not explain these people not explain their role they do not explain when they have the authority to deploy mental reservation or when they flip from civil law to Canon Law or vice versa (which appears to be a a cognitive process known only to them).

 

14. If yes, what did you believe was their role?

I believed whatever role they stated they had at that time as many had roles and titles that appeared to change on occasion.

 

15. Was any of the information you provided passed on to another individual or organisation without your knowledge or consent?

Yes.

 

16. Were you pressured to attend an internal hearing before your claim was accepted?

Yes.

 

17. Did you have other parties sitting in on any interview or hearing without your consent?

Yes.

 

18. Did the process have significant time delays before a resolution was reached? If yes, what reasons were given for the time delays?

Yes; Reasons given were: administrative mix-up, personal circumstances, holidays, overseas travels and other 'urgent matters' to attend to.

 

19. Did the organisation seek out your feedback on the process?

No.

 

20. If there was a finding in your case did it cover appropriately what had happened in your case?

No.

 

21. What actions could the Church or organisation now take, or what new systems or rules could it put in place, to ensure it deals fairly, compassionately and effectively with complaints of child abuse by its personnel?
    It is obvious that the church and its systems are incapable of responding in an appropriate manner and thus should be removed from that process entirely with the matters being dealt with by qualified professionals who have no religious interests.

 

22. Why was it you decided not to take civil action against the religious or other Government agency?

It was decided not by me, but by The Statute of Limitations and death of the perpetrator.

 

23. What actions could the Church or organisation now take, or what new systems or rules could it put in place, to prevent child abuse by its personnel in future?
    Placing gods, churches, the religious and the property of the churches and the religious before the needs and the rights of children will inevitably result in child abuse. The right of the child to be raised in a manner where they are free to choose without fear the belief system of choice on reaching the age of reason must be protected by the state as Catholicism simply does not permit this right of the child and opposes it at every level. Legislate to protect the rights of the child in this regard.
    
    

24. Statute of Limitations

The removal of Statute of Limitations across the spectrum of sexual abuse would go a long towards providing the right to justice that survivors of all forms of sexual abuse across society are entitled to. It would also act as a brake on the Catholic Church use of these laws to evade responsibility for their complicity in many sexual crimes against children.

 

25. The church not being a legal entity and assets being protected by property trusts

This absurdity is a direct blockage towards the appropriate use of the law to obtain justice.

 

26. Personnel not being considered employees

This absurdity is also a direct blockage towards the appropriate use of the law to obtain justice.

 

27. Consequences from the organisations hierarchy/other members of the church or other Christians/believers.

Yes. A great deal of this submission attempts to detail some of those incidents as well as providing accompanying evidence in the way of electronic recording, video or email.

28. Religious and other organisations should be mandatory reporters as per current obligations for those working in schools and teachers

The provision of exemptions on religious grounds has adversely affected many victims with some taking their own life as a result. No area of any religion can be provided with an exemption from reporting laws as to do so force the laws of the Catholic Church to over-ride the laws of our country. The negative impacts of this are far reaching across society despite the stated aim of providing freedom of religion. In this way the rights of 75%+ of the country are determined by the wants of a broken ad dysfunctional Catholic Church hierarchy.

 

29. Organisations should provide realistic and ongoing frameworks education and training to ensure adequate equitable relationships are fostered to negotiate appropriate boundaries in relation to children and vulnerable adults

 

There is no realistic or designed program in place that details the healing process offered; psychologists and counsellors are left to their own devices to ascertain what is best practice in their filed.When questioned in this regard it appears that Catholics and the catholic church hold only with the single view that healing can only be obtained through a return to full participation in obscene and psychologically unsound and damaging practices and doctrines.

 

This aspect is the prime driver in the re abuse and re traumatisation of survivors and their families and directly leads to suicide.Failure to conform in this regard leaves one subject to an astonishing array of biblical, liturgical and mythological beliefs or understandings of many everyday Catholics as to how someone who rejects their broken philosophy is to be treated and returns the survivor back into a repeat of abuses carried out against them as children. This is the most insidious and the most destructive aspect of this entire fiasco with the pain and suffering inflicted and driven on to survivors who are forced to repeatedly recall aspects of their childhood abuse or to re-experience similar abuses as encountered in childhood until they submit or die.

 

Psychologically educated providers consider it both normal and appropriate and within the remit of their religious practices to employ the full knowledge of your abuse against you in a practised and versed psychological attack on the most vulnerable aspects of the survivors' life. If it is possible for something to be worse than the above this aspect is such, and until all contact between survivors and support, redress, church or religiously run, operated or associated with religion services are required to provide qualified people with a neutral stance towards religion then these practices will continue to produce suicide, trauma and family breakdowns as they are considered to be a normal part of practising the Catholic faith.

 

30. Reporting of any suspected illegal behaviour or crime should be facilitated first and foremost through police

A natural for everyone else in society.

 

31. Ongoing primary prevention programs being implemented across the organisation in accordance with best practice recommendations from government.

A basic review of more than 100Catholic school web sites clearly shows that there is in the bulk of instances no reference to the much publicised safety policies. There is an abject lack of consistency with regard to child safety policies with only one reference being found that deals with the sexual safety of children and clergy.

 

32. Appropriate supervision of suspects and offenders with no access to complainants or those who could be construed as vulnerable children or adults.
    Appropriate supervision of suspects, offenders, self help support groups, religiously based support groups with no access to survivors or those who could be construed as vulnerable children or adults unless they operate in accordance with best practice recommendations from science and evidence.

 

33. The organisations response should be locally based and have a public profile such that they are approachable to the public and professionals.

Agenda, agenda- more jobs to be funded by the church and by government required here.

 

34. The organisation should include complainant representatives to ensure that their services appropriately target the needs of the complainants.

Agenda, agenda "“ more work for the newly created jobs. No mention of compliance with law, evidence, science etc.

 

35. Feedback and regular review should be embedded in the process to ensure complaints and service deliver is at an appropriate high level.

See above question.

 

36. Recognition and practical response and support to family members of the complainant "“the secondary victims

This is not a consideration of Carelink the Melbourne Response or the Towards Healing process as I understand it.

 

37. The relationship between Canon Law and civil and criminal law should be transparent and Canon Law should be subject to the law of the state

A given in all circumstances. Amazing that this would have to be a consideration; there is no mention of regulating Canon law into compliance with Australian law or for it to acknowledge the supremacy of Australian law when it deals with matters that are covered by Australian law. Canon law should have no references to any act tha tis covered by Australian law. When this occurs it can only be an instance of the church encroaching on civil matters through claiming its own position on such matters. There are no instances of Australian laws relating to matters of the Catholic religious practice yet Canon law repeatedly does step across that boundary and sets laws for Catholics which then lobby to have these set in place as a part of civil law. This brings Catholic Canon law to Australia by proxy; this compromises our entire legal structure, legal system, corrective services, rehabilitation, support, health, education and community services and has been a major player in setting the groundwork for the social and justice failure that brings this inquiry is set to investigate. The broken hierarchy have developed a society which has permitted the education of a ready made population that has been psychologically and traumatically bound to obedience through the power of forgiveness, fear, guilt and ultimate control over their everyday lives and over their anticipated next life.

 

38. Funding for victims to seek holistic casework approach. (medical/legal/psychological)

This would be a given in any developed society; the fact that it has been raised here as an issue supports my response to the above.

 

39. Statute of Limitations - amended to allow historical abuse claims

The overseas examples in response to the disclosures of the widespread scale and abhorrent nature of the crimes that have been covered up have caused many other countries to open windows or to remove entirely all statute of limitations relating to sex crimes.

 

40. Amend the law on vicarious liability so that priests and religious are treated as employees and therefore church authorities can be held responsible for breaches committed by church personnel

This loophole exists in many countries as well as Australia and is vigorously fought against by the Catholic church who willingly expends millions of dollars each year in defeating any attempt at bringing the responsibility that is required if justice is to become available to the survivors. Australia needs to seal this loophole so that it is permanently shut as equal justice cannot be provided to all Australians under current laws.

 

41. Over what period have you been in contact with the religious or other organisation about your abuse?

More than 7 years. Despite continuing and on-going attempts to establish a dialogue with regard this and other matters I and others continue to meet with a litany of Catholics whose hands are tied despite their abhorrence of the circumstances and despite their own decisions to not follow the bishops on many aspects of their religion they remain Catholics with tied hands when it comes to providing answers or services when they encounter survivors of clergy sexual abuse and inevitably fail to respond to email or telephone calls which inevitably results in the survivor being branded a troublemaker, a hater of the Catholic church with a grudge against the church, that we are mentally defective or in need of psychiatric drugs or intensive counselling or they deliver threats of legal action for stalking or whatever appears to be current at that time.This does result in people receiving invalid and incorrect information being put on their file to be used against them whenever they attempt to question the quality or equality of a service or decision. Many of the same tactics that we experienced as children are deployed in this practice and when a survivor who has received abuse as previously is faced with a similar encounter in their current interactions with the church services or within community services they are at a great risk of being re-traumatised by it. This can and does lead to suicide by the victim. This process serves only to habituate and to maintain a state of trauma in the survivor as a means of control of them. This is the consistent and generational repeating of the cycles of abuses we encountered as children "“ it is toxic and it is dangerous and it is possibly the major cause of those associated suicides that we know of and a major cause in many that we do not have sufficient evidence to establish that association.

 

42. Can you name these people and their roles?

Every Catholic participates in either funding, in supporting and simply through attempting to follow the teachings of the religion and the instructions of their bishops, priests and other religious.

 

43. Did the person give you the impression he/she was working for you?

No Catholic can work on behalf of a survivor who has doubts or no belief in the religion as they are dogmatically, doctrinally and canonically bound to comply with the practices and teachings of the law. Ref 42 above.

 

44. Please explain what/who you thought they represented?

There is no thought required. Catholics are bounds ref above. The Independent Commission into Sexual Abuse known as the Melbourne Response has been set up, run by, answers only to the Catholic church and Peter O'Callaghan states that he does not act for the survivor as he acts for the church in his activities and seeks to manage their costs and to provide the bishop with an account of his activities.The "Independent" commissioner openly states that he holds a unique position in that he operates under both Canon law and Criminal/Civil law. The Independent commissioner has no obligation to disclose when each legal system is being utilised or investigated by him although many of his activities show that he does strongly follow the Canonical methods in that no representative of the survivor exists within his realm of independent investigation, copies of transcripts reported to have been taken from those interviewed are provided nor are they permitted to be questioned or to have evidence or supportive statements against these purported assumptions is permitted under the guidelines of the Catholic Canonical process. It is objectionable to those of us with no belief in the Catholic god or its systems that we be assessed and judged and evaluated on the basis of the religion of another person. As an Australian I object in the strongest possible terms to this obscenity and the moral and legal corruption and the obviously broken and dangerous practices it forces on to me and others simply attempting to uphold our right to equality and justice.

 

45. Were you offered independent legal advice?

No. Not as a child nor later when in contact with church services.

 

 

46. Were you encouraged or discouraged from seeking some independent legal advice?

Neither. Discouraged, beaten, publicly humiliated, publicly denigrated, discriminated against in their school which also vilified and bullied me for suggesting this as a child.

 

47. Was support offered to your family or your community in your religious or other organisation? If yes, what support?

At no time was this offered.

 

48. Were you provided with copies of recordings or transcripts of recorded conversations or meetings?

No. Despite promises that I would receive a transcript and knowing that others received a transcript I am unable to obtain one as the bookkeeper who accompanied Susan Sharkey of Carelink was concerned about losing her job. I have not been able to ascertain if that recording still exists as the degree of concern shown by the bookkeeper (Catherine McGovern) was such that I doubted that it would be made available to others within the organisation due to her fear of losing her job.

 

49. Did you find out later that other people knew about your abuse? If yes, who?
    Yes. Around 2005 I was contacted by a Private Investigator who said he was working for IGFA (In Good Faith and Associates). He informed me that he was aware of my case and of its details. I was persuaded to believe him through his mention of matters relating to Herbie Kemp having made provision for me with the archdiocese. It was not until many years later in relating to someone else that I recalled those events and realised that I has not made reference to that or to anyone else in recent times about the issues surrounding that provision. I learned later through other survivors that this man was related by family to Helen Last of IGFA; I have not been able to validate his credentials or relationships. I learned later and had that confirmed by Richard Leder [see email below: Subject: RE: Helen Last's criminal behaviour and that of her diocese] that Helen Last had stolen many confidential files. I learned through Helen Last that these files formed a part of her settlement with the church over her wrongful dismissal although no mention was made of the inevitable legal action by the church that would be taken to recover those files by her as in response to my question she regaled me with her dream of being dressed in pure white veiled lace enveloped in a bright white light whilst floating near the ceiling of the Melbourne cathedral as she slowly floated down accompanied by vibrant organ music and singing to her rightful place at the altar where she was to receive the sainthood that she believes she is entitled to.
    
    

50. Was there a threat to withdraw support for any reason?

Yes. As a result of the phone call to my counsellor re the use of my recording of the meeting with Catherine McGovern (the Bookkeeper/receptionist) and Susan Sharkey, both of Carelink Melbourne.

51. Were you told what happened to you was not a crime?
    As a child I was told this was a sin. In more recent times these acts have been variously described by the Independent Commission and Carelink as a sin on occasion and as a crime on other occasions with a similar variation in the proposed punishment and dealing with the offender.

 

52. Did the person offer or give you a copy of your interview(s) or notes? - then retracted as I would not agree to her demand to not use the recording I had made
    
    

53. What are some of the most offensive, immoral or unjust circumstance you have experienced as a result of your abuse?

1. Having my rights to justice and restoration being traded back to the Vatican by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd [33].

2. Having to threaten the Queensland Minister for Community that she would be first on the list to face charges of crimes against humanity due to her actions towards survivors of childhood sexual abuse by clergy.

Learning of this connection "Also Craig and myself have a close relationship with Bravehearts which is located in his electorate. " after this communication with Jennilyn Mann at the Office of Craig Emerson Member for Rankin[index.php?id=176]

 

54. Can you describe some of the most offensive, immoral or unjust circumstances you have experienced as a result of your abuse?

On intervening on behalf of my son; Incarceration in Toowoomba mental health facility until I became silent about my connections with the bishop of Toowoomba.

Being falsely dragged through a bogus and obviously corrupt court system with regard to traffic offence charges.
Being discriminated and manipulated by the Queensland ~~ Pain and Punishment dept ~~~ on the basis of religion.

Being unable to obtain a non religion biased response from government.

MyFTP sent by the premier

Failure of numerous attempts to obtain a meeting with the then bishop of Toowoomba Bill Morriss [1, 2. 15, 17, 18, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 32]

The response of the Queensland Minister for Police, the Queensland Commissioner for Police and other commissioners response to being presented with evidence of criminal activity sanctioned by the Catholic Church.

Being beaten and intimidated on occasions of attempting to seek assistance vis the Toowoomba police service.

Being laughed at by local accounting identity Jason Elliott of R.N.Elliott & Co

and Toowoomba Strata Title Management and deceived by local lawyers and the sudden unwillingness of a technical expert with a full knowledge of the Ellco computers to provide his knowledge when attempting to obtain payment for the unauthorised use of my software for a number of years through being told as a result of a failed attempt to seek legal redress that I claimed that I was abused by Catholic priests and no one was going to believe me in court if I could get him into one.
Being told by a Queensland Police officer when questioning the veracity of the circumstance where he described how he had been selected to investigate a complaint. He stated "I drink with this bloke. I go to church with him. I barbecue with him on the weekends, my family are his friends. I don't investigate my mates, that's the way the system works son; get used to it" and later with "I am a policeman son, who is going to investigate me?"

Being repeatedly forcibly injected with high risk drugs and chemicals; being denied an opportunity to take action in regard this matter and matters leading up to it.

Falling prey to the unregulated imposition of religious belief and dogma in government funded and government provided services. [7, 8] a detailed explanation can be provided upon request.

Coming to grips with the understanding that I was related by marriage to the local bishop Bill Morriss whom I had sought to obtain a meeting with in regards the progress of my claim as he was the advertised and publicly announced head of the Ethics panel (name is not right) as well as the spokesperson for survivors of childhood sexual abuse by catholic clergy. [1, 2, 9, 10, 15, 30 additional can be supplied including contact re the same Toowoomba Catholic Education]

 

55. Can you describe some of the most offensive, immoral or unjust circumstances you have experienced as a result of your dealing with the Catholic or other churches or the religious?

 

 

The lack of independent of religion and independent of the Catholic religion in child protection and services must be reviewed by this inquiry. There is a complete lack of ability to critically evaluate the role of religion in child safety

 

The Catholic Leader
Standing together against abuse

Published: 2 September 2012

http://www.catholicleader.com.au/news.php/features/standing-together-against-abuse_82166

 

Karl Morris, who chairs the Bravehearts board, is a Catholic. He is also executive chairman of Ord Minnett Ltd, and sits on a number of boards including Sydney Catholic Development Fund, Sydney Archdiocesan Investment and Finance committees, and the Brisbane Archdiocesan Investment Committee.

"We need people trusting the Church." (Morris)

Hetty Johnston of Bravehearts :- "Our society needs a strong Christian faith -it is the glue that sticks us together," she said. "Our culture is based on Christian values; it is imbedded in our laws, our culture and our moral compass; but it is under enormous threat.

"At no time before has all of this been under so much pressure than now,not just in Australia but all over the world.

"We all need the Catholic Church to rebuild its reputation and reclaim a proud place in our society."

 

An interest in"Sydney Catholic Development Fund, Sydney Archdiocesan Investment and Finance committees, and the Brisbane Archdiocesan Investment Committee" at a time when the church has been globally acknowledged to have engaged in the cover up of abuses as a result of its misplaced obligations towards its properties and investments before the safety of children and the rights of survivors of abuse must seriously bring Bravehearts into question as to its ability to provide independent advice to governments, government bodies (DOCS), Universities and places of education, our judicial systems and our policing services as stated in the article and to others working in the field across the country. Independence is a must when dealing with all areas of abuse.

 

Services such as Bravehearts and all other associated services including self help groups, lawyers, or providers of other services should be mandated to provide a statement that publicly identifies their alliance with religious bodies and that it should also clearly state if their support of religion determines the order of priority when it comes to the support church doctrines and laws before the use of scientific peer reviewed research and independent of religion psychological services else there can only be a guarantee of more harm and more suicides.

 

The public has aright to know so they can assess their own safety and the safety of their children as children abused by clergy who are introduced to the Bravehearts system are clearly exposed to biased treatment as well as those of no religion or who have a different religion to the Christian religion. The role of child protection should not become an opportunity for the provider display their religiosity and to confirm their adherence to the teachings and principles of a religion "“ the religious status of children and their family is simply assumed to be Christian under this current scenario.

 

No consideration is given to the religious belief of children or their parents or for those with no beliefs who are often forced to accept biased support as that is often the only well funded support available. There is no possibility of objectivity in dealing with victims of clergy or the religious given hers, and the Bravehearts Chairs', obviously strong ties to the Catholic Church and the Christian religion in general.

 

This problem exists in many areas of support with Lotus Place in Brisbane being another that has similar issues. A review of many support groups particularly in the area of Forgotten Australians and more recently in the areas of Forced Adoptions act in a similar manner. While they do there will be repeated and consistent failure and damage to children and survivors including suicides. The practice of governments funding such entities and then permitting them to write their own constitutions based on the religious beliefs and ideals places them outside any form of scrutiny or performance monitoring. Few of these entities have a defined complaint process. Most have left a trail of harmed and damaged children and adults in their religiously zealous wake. The mainstay of financial support for Bravehearts comes from tax payers pockets; the tax payers have been given no choice or say in the matter of providing government funds to religiously biased bodies such as Bravehearts. Bravehearts are the major consumer of government funding for child protective services in Queensland and possibly federal government funding for these types of services as well as a major provider across the country.

 

It has become a practice that people who question these aspects with Bravehearts or other similar providers are publicly denigrated and belittled while their mental health status is questioned while they are openly branded as trouble makes and vile people. Ref [14]. This was the case recently when the issue of a missing petition containing some 30,000signatures placed in trust with Bravehearts was raised with them.

 

Similar circumstances are currently hindering the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry [https://www.childprotectioninquiry.qld.gov.au/about/terms-of-reference]which has been unable to source a location to provide support at the time of writing that does not have this type of connection with the Catholic or other religions or has previously been attempted and discarded due to a religious affiliation. The lack of independent of religion services is obscene in the light of these current inquiries and must be addressed so that assured secular services are the predominant services available to the Australian people.

 

The testimonies or the vast majority of those making a personal submission relate to incidences of child abuse within a religious environment. These testimonies describe how the religious used dogma and religion in all its forms to access children, to intimidate, to sexually abuse, to silence and to bring insurmountable pressure to bear against any that attempted to speak out; all of these things being done using the tools and tenants of religion. It is evident that religion is entwined through every aspect of the myriad abuses disclosed to this inquiry; they also describe the psychological harm they experienced as a result of their treatment as children. While a great deal of focus is placed onto the psychological needs of the survivors little or no focus is directed as to why or how religion is used in this way.

No evaluation or critique is permitted when these abuses include doctrinal or religious laws and teachings yet these are repeatedly described throughout survivor testimony as being integral to their submission and silencing and subsequent denial of justice and proper care.

Should a parent describe a personal belief to child protection authorities or police that it is not only acceptable but that it is admirable that a father should sacrifice his son or that he should offer up his girl child for rape or to take her life because of a self made contract they would be sectioned as rapidly as possible due to the obvious threat to the safety of children and others around them as well as having many questions as to their sanity and morality raised yet these very practices form a part of the Catholic teaching. Teachings which are binding on all Catholics who are subjected to sanctions should they transgress the teachings of the church.

Should a baker offer loaves of bread for sale that he claims becomes the body and blood of a famous historical individual upon ingestion and recommends that this ritual should be carried out regularly he would face a wide range of charges ranging from fraud, deception, ritualised cannibalism; he would be considered a danger to himself and to the community as well as a danger to children.

The Catholic teaching of forgiveness openly acknowledges that a child rapist can be forgiven a moment before their death and they will receive the award of eternal life and a place in heaven as a result while survivors are vilified and abused for failing or refusing to forgive their abuser as this somehow blocks the rapist from obtaining their desired place in eternity is more than an absurdity it is abhorrent and disgusting yet this is permitted to be taught and practised as a part of the Catholic religion.

The church teaches that its laws come before all other laws and that it alone has the right to forgive and to judge while retaining for itself the ability to obtain covert access through the confessional to information about criminal acts against children and refuses to pass that information on to civil authorities. The testimonies support the understanding that the confessional is used to blackmail and to silence through a variety of means including the ability to describe the criminal act of child sexual abuse as a sin and to then forgive that sin so that it should never be mentioned again - this is clearly an act which perverts the course of justice while subverting any attempts of control and management by government, individuals or other bodies to bring reason, accountability and justice to this situation.

The psychological effects of being raised in an environment that biblically sanctions the subversion of the law of the country is abhorrent in its own right and brings injustice to all other members of the Australian community.

The church and its followers are obviously disinclined and incapable of examining their teachings and practices in an objective manner in the light of modern day understandings of child rearing and psychology and have been this way for generations.

When ownership and dispensation of the ultimate authority of the creator of the universe is claimed in the manner that the Catholic church does while it has no actual verifiable proof that this is the actual case we are left to accept their position as a matter of trust; a trust that has been broken so deeply and so many times that it has resulted in this inquiry and the population of the country are expected to accept and to go along with what they know and see as comprehensive failure at every level of morality, ethics, best practices in child rearing and justice in society.

The church is incapable of changing direction; it is incapable of removing morally corrupt and broken teachings from its religion; it is incapable of practising best practice in all areas of its religion while it claims best practice in its schools while retaining the broken dogmas and practices within its religion. The church is incapable of releasing children from its grasp whilst proclaiming this is for the good of the child.

A child born into Catholicism is stained with an original sin which is the result of the actions of others, male children are subjected to the unnecessary procedure of circumcision resulting in permanent genital mutilation. Children are bound into the religion through ceremonies such as first communion and ritual marriage rites of confirmation around puberty. Each is individually bound under a wide range of laws that hold among many forms of discipline the threat of social rejection, public humiliation and denigration, eternal punishment and transferred punishments to friends and family. Catholic teaching claims that children raised in this manner are able to freely choose knowing full well that they will receive instant death should they consider other than the Catholic religion. If there is one piece of legislation that results from this inquiry it must be legislation that genuinely protects not just Catholic children but all the children of society from such circumstances.

The church is incapable of affording genuine protection for the rights of a children to grow to adulthood where they can then be free to make an unencumbered choice for themselves as to their religious beliefs.

 

I declared my life open in 2002 in an attempt to control what was happening as a result of my disclosure in Toowoomba of being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. Since that time I have developed what I believe to be the largest piece of continuous documentation of the experience of myself and many others in their dealings with the Catholic church. I would like to present to the people of Victoria and the people of Australia the core of these 10 years of documentation as evidence of the crimes against humanity and the use an abuse of religion in covering up the sexual and other crimes of Catholic clergy and the clergy of other religions.

 

Having my penis mutilated through having the end of it cut off thus removing more than 30,000 nerve endings without my permission as a child to fulfil the religious habits and dictates of others. I will never experience what is natural in a sexual sense due to this useless and disgusting habit of male genital mutilation. I wish to be compensated for the lifelong results of this mutilation.

 

 

 

• Being confirmed into the Catholic faith under duress and against my wishes as a child.

 

• Being enslaved to the Catholic religion through being baptised into the Catholic religion without my consent before I had reached an age where I could give consent. Ownership of my person is still claimed and held today by the Catholic Church. I require that the Catholic Church provide without mental reservation a total, comprehensive, complete and unambiguous removal of all ties, obligations or claims by the Catholic Church towards any manifestation of me or my person.

 

• Being constantly bullied, manipulated, psychologically abused and mentally tortured through the use of threat of mental and physical torture and death as a child.

 

• Being deemed as a child to be personally responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.

 

• Being deemed as a child by the religious as the personification and re-incarnation of Hitler, Stalin and the mythical catholic devil for personally being the cause of all the wars in the world as well as for the individual suffering of billions of other human beings, the low grades of other students and the small size of meals eaten or missed by children in Africa.

 

• Being beaten across the head with a large leather strap for "being so right all the time" as a child in a place claimed to be providing me with an education.

 

• Being spied on a reported on via the Catholic confession ritual resulting in beatings, forced labour, discrimination in my educational, home and community environments, bullying and public claims that I was unable to open my mouth without uttering lies.

 

• Being intimidated into the disgusting practice of ritualised cannibalism as a child when it was against my wishes at that time. Being beaten into submission and compliance through psychological terrorism and blatant lies.

 

• Having to demand a refund and to threaten that I would retrieve my loss when 10% of my wages as an apprentice were automatically tithed to the Catholic Church by my employer.

 

• Being subjected to bizarre sexual activity by nuns and priests and to being forced to observe bizarre sexual activities between nuns and priests prior to 4 years of age through to 8 years of age.

 

• Being completely buried under wood in a small woodshed while mentally abused through threats and claims that snakes and centipedes were everywhere and that they would bite and kill me if I should dare to speak of the bizarre sexual activities I was forced to endure. Being provided with cigarettes upon release and on many following occasions where I became addicted to their use as a means of quelling the fear and panic I experienced as a result of those experiences; I have yet to be able to break this addiction and my internalised use to suppress the horrors of those experiences and estimate that this habit has cost me more than $1,000,000 throughout my lifetime and has brought with it life-shortening health consequences as well as lifelong psychological dependencies and subsequent health problems.

 

• Being constantly exposed and raised in an environment that has blackmail as it core method or communication and negotiation.

 

• Being psychologically manipulated to believe in a staggering number of fallacious, improbable and fantastic claims in an educational environment while there was and is no supporting evidence to this day for those claims.

 

• Being educated as a child to accept that fantastic claims and miraculous events were possible for me to be able to perform at will when there was and is no scientific data or evidence to support such claims.

 

• Being traumatised into a wide range of long lasting states of denial, delusion and mental conflict through the psychological use of religion against me as a child.

 

• Being provided with no alternative by government when obscene, immoral, irrational and scientifically unfounded Catholic doctrines have led to the alteration and modification of legislation to such an extent that I and others are forced into compliance and acceptance of Catholic doctrine through its application across the national when it is enshrined in our laws.

 

• Being unable to readily and freely locate and to identify individuals, service and health providers who are independent of religion within government, community, judicial, policing, health and community services so that I can conduct my business, ensure my own physical and psychological health and well being without the undesirable biased influence and pressures of the religious beliefs, habits, dictates etc. of another person or persons taking precedence over my life or the life of my family.

 

• Being educated and socially pressured and sanctioned throughout my life for failing to show respect towards those who physically, psychologically and sexually abused me and those who blackmailed, deceived, financed and covered up those crimes against myself and others in my family and the many millions of children and vulnerable adults across the world also abused in this way. Having to contribute financially to the support of this dangerous and broken toxic system via taxes, charges, grants and funding by governments at all levels across the country.
  
  

• There still remains the question as to availability of access to survivors of the Memorandum of Understanding between Victoria Police and the Melbourne response and other immunities and exemptions provided to the Catholic church by both state and federal governments as the existence of these does bring into question the ability of this Inquiry to deal with all parties on a level and impartial footing.

 

A lifetime exemption and a comprehensive refund from government of all taxes and fees paid to government bodies over a lifetime should be a minimum contribution towards restitution made by government to those of us abused by these systems.

 

The introduction of a simply worded sworn oath of office to all political, government, community,judicial, policing, health education etc. employment requiring that allegiance to the country, the people, the children, the environment and the law of our country is the supreme allegiance coming before all other allegiances, beliefs, alliances, religion, oaths and agreements. If we cannot have that as a simple base for the population as a whole we can only have people who have agendas other than those that are in the best interests of the country, its people and its children. To provide other does require our governments to provide the population of the country with a safe alternative refuge where they can live in compliance with the laws and the spirit of the laws of Australia without being forced into compliance with the Catholic or other religious beliefs and wants of those who wish to follow a religion.

 

As I understand it that would mean that roughly 2/3 of population of the country are currently lacking this option.

 

The issue of the abuse of children in the Catholic church and the accompanying social failures are worldwide.

 

The phenomena of bullying by the religious has shown itself to be the core cause of the most socially destructive forms of abuse that we have learned of and has allowed the wholesale abuse of children for generations.

 

Society cannot afford to have the power bought through untold wealth and the willingness to exploit everything at their disposal to enforce their broken doctrines operating at these current levels where they are able to influence whole new generations and to repeat the cycle.

 

The cycle of the abuse of power by the religious must be broken for the sake of humanity and its children.

 

Today the world knows better than those who wish to control us and to speak on our behalf as that is clearly shown to be just another way of exploiting the vulnerable and reinforces the need for national levels of control.

 

This inquiry if it is to engage in similar tactics as those deployed for years by the Catholic church in that it attempts to localise and to minimise the extent of the damage through confining investigations to events occurring only in Victoria when in fact it is the culture of Catholicism that has permitted these abuses to become so widespread will only prolong the damage and harm already caused to our society.

 

I understand that this Inquiry only has authority for events in the state of Victoria while each of you individually know that the cultural aspects of this are borderless and each of you know that to attempt to apply state wide solutions will only prolong and adversely affect the entire population of the country.

 

It is for these reasons and for the fact that children can freely cross borders in Australia as well as rapist clergy; there are no borders within Australia that these abuses can be confined within. Our children and our society deserve better than an isolated, minimised Inquiry that is not empowered or resourced for the task of bringing justice to survivors and protection to children.

 

The Victorian government was advised in a clear and concise way 27 March 2009 of the extent of these abuses [39] yet it has taken more than 3 years and the loss of too many lives for it to act.

 

This Inquiry has an obligation to not just the people of Victoria, it has an obligation to seek a federal Royal Commission so that all Australians can benefit from the knowledge and the information being brought to this Inquiry as without setting that in motion this Inquiry will have failed in the most monstrous of ways.

 

The decision to protect children before protecting long held beliefs and traditions is no longer valid today and thankfully the actions of those empowered with the authority here have to live with the instant world wide coverage and perpetual and all pervasive memory that this inquiry will attract.

 

Just how well Australia protects its children and treats its fellow human beings is on show to the world, which is not like those of us forced to bundle, to hide, to repress and to forget just so that we could survive the horrors that you have had placed before you.

 

The world no longer has the ability to forget and should this Inquiry get it wrong not only will you have that as a permanent reminder of your personal failure, Australia and its children will also carry the stigma of failure through being raised in a country which has become an active participant in the world's largest instance of child abuse and exploitation and its covering up.

 

It is time for our National government to step up and to take on the responsibility of protecting the children and for providing justice for every person in the country before any of their other interests.

 

 

 

 

John A Brown

 

September 17, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Letters of reference:

 

Peter Wadley VOC Victoria: Peter WadleyVOC Victoria.pdf

Dan Box Reporter The Australian:DanBox.pdf

Alice Carr Melbourne: Alice Carr.pdf

Kathy Devine Brisbane: Kathy Devine.pdf

Corneilius Crowley London: CorneiliusCrowley.pdf

Ken Kosiorek USA: Ken Kosiorek.pdf

Kay Ebeling USA: Kay Ebeling.pdf

Doug Fenwick Brisbane: Doug fenwick.pdf

Fran Fogarty: Fran Fogarty.pdf

Helen Creely Victoria: HelenCreely.pdf

 

References:

 

1. Religious bias upheld via government provided services. Establishes relationship of the psychologist with local Catholic church hierarchy and with TASC (Toowoomba Advocacy Service) http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/job-australia-psychologist-dec-09-1st-meet-file-1.mp3

2.Job Australia psychologist, brother of local founder of TASC, ex Jesuit member of Toowoomba Catholic hierarchy describes and counsel differently based on his association with his religious brother.Describes once again my relationship with the bishop of Toowoomba http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/psychologist-meeting-jan-21.mp3

3.Job Australia Case manage acknowledging that due to my disclosure as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse there is a need to manipulate the government system http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/we-manipulate-the-system.MP4

4.Job Australia letter produced by Jason Toombs contrary to stated aims and conclusions found throughout 1 & 2 above http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/Jason-toombs-letter-1.jpg

5.Job Australia letter produced by Jason Toombs contrary to stated aims and conclusions found throughout 1 & 2 above http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/Jason-toombs-letter-2.jpg

6.Government funded service failing due to religious bias http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/job-australia-cant-look-man-feb24-2010.mp3

7.Government employee claiming religious exemption so that the Government body can discriminate http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/parole-and-probation-casey-complaint.MP4

8.Government employee attempting to enforce religious beliefs before state requirements http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/parole-and-probation-supervisor-eloise.mp3

9.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/wed20julysuesharkey_1.mp3

10.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/wed20julysuesharkey_2.mp3

11.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/*******scrapbook

12.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/*******

13. Providing Toowoomba Police with a copy of Decree Crimen [20] http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/toowoomba-report-police-visit-1.mp3

14.Call from Hetty Johnston re abuse of trust with 30,0000 signatures calling for a Royal Commission http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/hetty-johnston-blackmailing-attempt.mp3

15.Explaining to the head of Centacare Toowoomba of the issuespertaining to my  family relationship with the then bishop ofToowoomba http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/bishop-morris-coffee-with-head-carelink-toowoomba.mp3 Text of the above:http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/bishop-morris-coffee-with-head-carelink-toowoomba.txt

16.Government science initiative spoiled through religious bia shttp://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/Hello-from-Earth-+61293108500_2009-08-18-Tue-11-42-00.mp3

17.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/jan-1-2012-marie-St-Vincent-de-Paul-Canberra.mp3

18.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/dan-toombs-march-18-2009.mp3

19.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/toowoomba-report-police-visit-1.mp3

20.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/solicitation-secrecy.pdf

21.Anonymous Catholic caller stating how being a Catholic exempts youfrom legally binding contracts http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/margaret-anonymous-caller-intersting-snippett.mp3

22.Anonymous caller - full conversation http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/margaretbrowning.mp3

23.Meeting with member for Toowoomba South Mike Horan http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/mike-horan-20-10-09-1.mp3

24.Toowoomba police acting in an attempt to prevent a breach of justicewithin a government department http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/myftp.mp3

25.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/on-michael-day-casemanager.mp3

26. http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/carelink-call-cot-7-2011.mp3

27.Senior Victorian police stating that a Memorandum of Understanding exists between Victoria police and the Catholic established Commission into Sexual Abuse http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/callfromglenndaviesvicpol-conversation2.mp3

28.Senior Victorian police stating that a Memorandum of Understanding exists between Victoria police and the Catholic established Commission into Sexual Abuse http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/callfromGlennDaviesVicPol.mp3

29.2008 - attempting to address the suicides and the re abuse with the bishop of Ballarat http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/bishop-Pconnors_ballarat_20020101_120018.mp3

30. http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/angela-ryan-nov-3-2010.mp3
Conversation with Angela Ryan as head of Towards Healing - also references my family relationship issue with the bishop of Toowoomba

31.http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/angela-ryan-nov-3-2010.mp3

32.Meeting with the Federal member for Groom on this issue http://www.mybrokensociety.com/images/inquiry/091113_mcfarlane.mp3

33.The Prime Minster of Australia - Speers interview: http://www.the-gcac.com/cache/2008/gcac-cache-frame.php?y=2008&d=20080924122004&t=Prime+Minister+of+Australia+-+Interview+-+Interview+with+David+Speers%2C+Sky+News

34. Sex abuse victims claim conflict incare process: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sex-abuse-victims-claim-conflict-in-care-process-20120326-1vupt.html

 

35. In Goof Faith and Associates: igfa

 

36. How the church covered up forFather Kevin O'Donnell; http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/page124-odonnell.html

 

37. An apology by the Prime Ministerand the Governor General of Australia http://www.mybrokensociety.com/not-your-goods-to-trade

 

38. Meeting and presenting the QLDPolice Commissioner, Minster for Police with copy of Decree Crimen [20] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13wwuU1NE9E&feature=plcp

39.Notifying the Victorian Premier Dept of Premier & Cabinet of the known extent of child abuse within the Catholic church September Fri, 27 Mar 2009 : Dept of Premier & Cabinet-DeptofPremier&Cabinet@dpc.vic.gov.au-.pdf

 

-------- OriginalMessage --------

Subject:	Re: payment of fees for John Brown
Date:	Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:43:43 +1000
From:	John <john@inbusiness.com.au>
Reply-To:	john@inbusiness.com.au
Organisation:	IBD
To:	Carelink <Carelink@melbourne.catholic.org.au>

Catherine, I am writing in regards the payment of fees to my counsellor due to recently learning that payments are irregular and regularly do not amount to the full payment of invoices, furthermore some of these invoices are seriously overdue. When I listen to the recording of our discussion in this regard it is clear and evident to me where responsibilities lie in regards both yourself and Sue Sharkey. Now when I consider the offers and promises made it comes to me that this act is clearly intended to deprive me of the promised services and compensation which you so clearly offered and is supported by the Catholic Church as you state. That a full description of this henious act can only describe it as an immoral, unethical, illegal act that this blatantly breaches the bounds of legal and medical practices as well as breaching The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a broad range of other pacts and agreements this country has signed. Now I do not want to get into that sort of conflict with you, however should these accounts not be brought up to date within 7 days I shall undertake that process if that becomes necessary. On further listening I found that other promises have not been fulfilled and I shall follow this mail up with more of those points, however initially I demand that my compensation application of $100,000,000.00 dollars for myself, $50,000,000.00 for my wife and $20,000.000.00 for my son should be forwarded to the compensation panel immediately together with a demand for an immediate payment of $380,000.00 to reacquire my home. I shall post the plaque which you both promised to forward to Cardinal Pell which obviously did not occur as it was returned to me in an unsigned, anonymous envelope. As you did not report this stolen or make any other information requests save for seeking to obtain my silence through my counsellor I was led to believe that it was returned by either yourself or Sue Sharkey. I have taken the liberty of forwarding copies of this email to supportive friends and to Peter O'Callaghan and will demand of him tha the put a stop to these abhorrent and inhumane practices immediately. I feel so strongly about this that I shall make this situation available to any individual who will support me and to the Attorney General herein Queensland and to the Attorney general in Victoria, as well it is my intention to forward this to The Prime Minister, the Opposition leader and to every politician in the country. Further it would be my intention to undertake a personal task of emailing every Bishop, priest and other religious regardless of their denomination as means of exterminating this abomination as well as those who hold offices in Catholic Charities, Universities and Schools until these morally unjust conditions are reversed. Please advise by return mail when your payment will be made. regards John Brown

 

 

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	RE: coming forward - Cardinal Pell
Date:	Mon, 1 Jun 2009 12:35:38 +1000
From:	John Usher <john.usher@sydneycatholic.org>
To:	<info@september12009.com>

 Dear Mr Brown Cardinal Pell has asked me to respond to your email on his behalf.  He is presently away from Sydney.  He expresses his sincere regret about your abuse by Kevin O'Donnell.  I have referred the matter to Melbourne and will ascertain what that Archdiocese is doing to assist you.  Could you let me know if your contact with the Archdiocese of Melbourne has been unhelpful.Yours sincerely Fr John Usher CHANCELLOR ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY133 Liverpool Street Sydney   NSW   2000 Phone:  02 9390 5100Fax:  02 9261 8312

 

From:contact@tfyqa.biz[mailto:contact@tfyqa.biz]
Sent:Sunday, 29 April 2012 1:54 PM
To:Richard.Leder@corrs.com.au
Subject:Fwd: Fw: Helen Last's criminal behaviour and that of her diocese
Importance:High

 

Richard,

My name is John Brown. I have strong reasons to believe that details of my records are still in the hands of Helen Last and that the information in them was used in in 2008 or thereabouts to head hunt hunt me for inclusion into the Melbourne Victims Collective. I believe others have been contacted and head hunted in a similar manner.

You can contact me via replyto or on 0756412311.

rgds

JohnB

 

----- Original Message-----

From:RichardLeder

To:'HanoraBrennan'

Sent:Saturday, April 28, 20125:11 AM

Subject:RE: Helen Last's criminal behaviour and that of her diocese

 

Dear Ms Brennan

 

We are the solicitors for the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and we refer to your email below.

 

Following his appointment as the Independent Commissioner for the Archdiocese of Melbourne, Mr Peter O'Callaghan QC took steps to require Ms Helen Last to hand over to him all of the files of the Archdiocese's Pastoral Response Office, which he believes she did. 

 

If you have any evidence that Ms Last has retained any files, you are requested to provide the same so that appropriate action can be taken. 

 

 

Yours sincerely

Richard Leder

 

 

NB. At the time of lodging the above I intended to make a submission to the Queensland inquiry as a great deal of other activities were not able to be added to the submission to the Victorian inquiry as it did not relate to acts within Victoria and thus ineligible for inclusion in the Victorian inquiry.

 

 

 

You can find JohnB on Facebook, you can contact him via telephone on +61 756412311, SKYPE him at TFYQA1 or email john@tfyqa.biz