Tantetje down under

MEDIA RELEASE:
CATHOLICCARE DOESN’T CARE!

Once again Cardinal Pell’s statements of care and concern have shown to be absolute and total lies as a 90 year old woman struggles to get one sentence about her childhood in a NSW orphanage.

Recently, CLAN was contacted by a 90 year old woman from Western Australia, as media about the Royal Commission had triggered for her issues of abuse in two Catholic orphanages in NSW.

CLAN applied on her behalf for her records at the CatholicCare Bankstown office last Friday and had provided the organisation with her birth and marriage certificates as well as signed documents stating that she gave permission for CLAN to receive her records on her behalf.

These records are vital for Care Leavers in order to receive assistance from services that they are entitled to and to provide information for their submission to the Royal Commission, and to learn about their family history.

CLAN was informed that those records would be delivered this Monday. We stressed that she was 90 years old to the caseworker at CatholicCare. We were telephoned on Tuesday to be informed that we would not receive the information – which is only one line in a book –entry and exit dates, due to the fact that the birth and marriage certificates were not certified copies. 

CLAN is forced to ask - Is this how the Catholic Church deals with people who were abused?
CatholicCare is the only past provider of orphanages and children’s Homes in NSW that has put obstructions and brick walls in the paths of people who were abused as children. Their statements of care and compassion have proven fruitless.

CLAN Executive Officer, Leonie Sheedy stated “CatholicCare - what a strange name to call themselves? What care has been given to this 90 year old woman? CatholicCare is retraumatising NSW Care Leavers with this archaic policy.”

CLAN hopes that the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse will retrieve all records from this past provider agency.