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Victims' Stories (listen and read)
May 20, 2013, North Queensland Register article. By a campfire at a school retreat, a 10-year-old boy sings Fire and
Rain, James Taylor's sad and sweet ballad of the times. It is 1972. The
boy is John Saunders, the youngest of nine children from a Catholic
family that loves to sing. Listening are schoolmates from Marist
Brothers Primary, Mosman, and a lay teacher in whom John has found a
friend, a man he has come to love and trust. Twenty-five
years later, in March 1997, Saunders will recall this evening while
making a statement to police, detailing how the teacher betrayed that
trust. And in December that year, Saunders will describe his spiral into
depression to an eminent clinical psychologist commissioned by the
Marist Brothers. CLICK HERE to read the full story
March 26, 2013. . When senior NSW Police Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told ABC TV's
Lateline programme that the Catholic Church had covered up crimes by paedophile
priests, silenced investigations and destroyed evidence to avoid prosecution -
the public outrage triggered a Royal Commission into institutional child abuse.
One of the stories that led to this is that of Patricia Feenan's son, Daniel, a
14-year-old altar boy when first raped by a priest in the Newcastle/Maitland
diocese. CLICK HERE for the audio interview
Sunday
Mar. 10, 2013, Herald Sun article. MOST people don’t understand the impact of sexual
abuse. They rattle off words like ‘rape’ and ‘molestation’ but
they don’t really understand it. If they did, they’d do something about
it. My husband, John, and I have four boys, Daniel, Luke, Dominic and
Bernard. We raised them on a 25-acre property 40 minutes from
Newcastle, NSW, and led a happy life with a strong Catholic faith. The
boys were 11, 10, seven and three when Father James Fletcher arrived in
our parish. CLICK HERE for the rest of the story
Chrissie Foster's ABC interview
Sat. Sep. 22, 2012 . Anti-child
abuse campaigner Chrissie Foster who is fighting for change within the
Catholic system discusses the tragic story of her daughters, who were
abused over a number of years by members of the clergy.
CLICK HERE for the rest of the story
When will the other churches come to the party? Why are they silent and letting
the Catholics take all the heat? Aged 17 I was groomed and assaulted by an
Anglican church official. Nearly 14 years after I first complained, they are
still telling me to go away. In 1997, they said I had to withdraw my complaint
from the Police before they would investigate. Then they said "he didn't do it"
and told me to go away. Then after continued pressure, they appointed a
barrister who said my complaint was substantiated. Then they fired the
perpetrator and told me to go away. Although they magnanimously paid for some
counselling, they have never once apologised or taken responsibility for the
destruction of my childhood. They say at 17 I should have known better. But I
had only just turned 17 and was a school leaver. I had never even seen a male
unclothed before he exposed himself to me in the cathedral organ loft. I am
still waiting for any form of justice. This is despite a memo obtained from the
Diocesan office that detailed his molestation of a 12 year old in the 1950s!
CLICK HERE for the rest of the story
Award winning video: Happy Anniversary
Interview:
MICHAEL EDWARDS (ABC News PM): A gloomy sky and rain provide a sombre backdrop for Nicky Davis
as she visits St Anthony in the Fields Church for the first time in decades.
As a child she attended mass at the parish, which is located in Terrey
Hills, a suburb north of Sydney.
NICKY
DAVIS: It's certainly extremely uncomfortable. It's not a place I ever
want to be. I'm trying not to go down the path of remembering the abuse
itself
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/priest-resumes-parish-duties/story-fndo471r-1226479288827but
there's also lots of feelings of how badly I was treated.
MICHAEL EDWARDS (ABC News PM): Nicky Davis says that she was
abused by a member of the Passionist Order, Vincent Crawford, or Brother Brendan
as he was then known. Looking inside the church she recalls attending
mass there as a young girl. She says her memories of Brother Brendan are
terrifying. ... CLICK HERE for the rest of the interview .................... CLICK HERE for Nicky's letter to Pope Benedict relating her story and struggles.
September 2010. I
will be frank with my story. This is my
truth and I am no longer feeling intimidated into silence, nor do I believe it
is wrong for me to speak out. It is important that others, particularly
Catholics, read my story because it can be told, unlike many others. CLICK HERE for the rest of the story
CLICK HERE for the Broken Rites entry on this story.
I am a single Mother of 6 beautiful children. I am a member of the Catholic
Church community in Healesville. My eldest son who was just 14 at the time, was
devoted to his faith and participated in the mass as an altar boy of the St
Brigid’s Parish, He had worked under several priests before Fr Pavlou was
introduced to our parish. Fr Pavlou became infatuated with my son to the
point he couldn’t go a day without seeing him. Even when I set Boundaries of
their interaction he continually broke them and encouraged my son to lie to me
and teachers. CLICK HERE for the rest of the story.
Dear Pope,
I heard the other day that you apologized to five people in America who have
been abused by Roman Catholic priests. Unfortunately, I feel that, like all of
the Catholic Church’s efforts to deal with clergy sexual abuse, this was a
gesture designed to protect the good name of the church.
But, you were not the one who had to lay awake at night, wondering if the car
travelling at breakneck speed, disappearing in the distance, was the last time
you would hear your son, a victim of a now convicted Roman Catholic priest,
alive.
You were not the one who had to take your son to hospital at 2.30 in the
morning, because he had broken three bones in his hand, in a fit of anger and
guilt, because his mind had been so poisoned, that the priest was able to
convince him everything was his fault. CLICK HERE for the rest of the story.
It has taken most of her life to discover, but Noreen Wood knows now she is a
fighter. Like most victims of sexual abuse, she has many needs - financial,
physical and emotional - but the most urgent, the one that drives her even when
she feels that tackling the Catholic Church is like tilting at windmills, is for
the truth to be heard and acknowledged. CLICK HERE for the rest of the story................CLICK HERE for Related story
One August evening in l947, nine-year-old Betty Millar (then Betty Payne) was
called into the school hall of St Anthony's orphanage in Feltham, Middlesex,
where she lived with 70 or so other children. Betty noticed that some of the
home's young charges were puzzlingly absent. Without any preamble, the missing
girls were brought in and the head of the orphanage announced these children had
been picked to go and live in Australia, sailing the following day. Some of the
children who had been picked had led such sheltered lives they thought Australia
was a coastal resort in Britain, where they were going for a day trip.
CLICK HERE for the rest of the story
A
NEWCASTLE woman, whose statement to future Catholic Archbishop Philip
Wilson about pedophile priest Denis McAlinden prompted an attempted
secret defrocking of McAlinden in 1995, has lodged a formal complaint
with police. "On behalf of all of the victims of Denis McAlinden, I am
seeking justice," the woman wrote to Lake Macquarie Detective Inspector
Dave Waddell yesterday. CLICK HERE for the rest of the story
ONE of Victoria's most senior Catholic figures, Bendigo's Bishop Joseph
Grech, broke church rules by leaking an abuse complainant's details, and
allegedly described her as ''crazy''. Bishop Grech was forced to write a letter of apology to Eaglehawk resident
Michelle Goldsmith after an internal church inquiry headed by a senior Catholic
cleric. Bishop Grech breached the confidentiality designed to protect a clerical
abuse victim when he spoke about Mrs Goldsmith with the former Eaglehawk parish
president. ... CLICK HERE for the rest of the story
Michael Rounce's Story
More
than 30 years ago Mary and Mike Rounce told Catholic Bishop Leo Clarke
of their concerns about priest and St Pius X teacher John Denham and
his behaviour with their son Michael. On Friday in Sydney District
Court Judge Helen Syme sentenced former Hunter paedophile priest John
Denham to jail until at least June 2022. Today the Rounces will tell
Maitland Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone how Bishop Clarke’s failure to
act, along with many others including St Pius X principal Tom Brennan,
contributed to Michael’s death. ... CLICK HERE for the rest of the story
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