zaterdag, juni 15, 2013
vrijdag, juni 14, 2013
System-leavers: Leger des Heils: Rivervieuw Training Farm for Boys
" We are no care-leavers, there was no care; we are system-leavers "
Homies
The Riverview Home run by the Salvation Army, until its license was revoked by the Queensland Government in 1977, is another of the institutions requiring a second look by the Royal Commission. All records were claimed to have been lost in the 1974 floods. The principal accused abuser, Captain Lawrence Wilson, was acquitted of all charges against him. However, the matter is far from settled in the minds of many.
It was ranked as the worst institution in Queensland by the 1998 Forde Inquiry. It was where many Indigenous “Stolen Generation” children were sent. The 1914 Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aborigines notes than several boys were sent there (see reference below). The Home was also the destination of many of the “child migrants”.
In 1956, the UK Home Office’s John Ross led a fact-finding committee to investigate Australian child migrant institutions, and found unfavourable conditions and poorly-trained staff in the 26 institutions it visited. The Committee’s confidential report blacklisted five institutions, among them the Salvation Army Riverview Boys’ Home.
On 7 December, 2010, at Old Parliament House, Canberra, in a closed event, the international leader of The Salvation Army, General Shaw Clifton, issued a national apology to former residents of Salvation Army Homes. The author was not invited to this function (nor to the national apology by Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull – too radical!).
Mr. Carlise says it took him 53 years to talk about his experiences at Riverview. His take on the whole apology thing is clear. “Sorry what does it mean?” he said. “It doesn’t mean a bloody thing to me. No apology and no amount of money in the whole wide world will get back what they took.”
Barry Maslen gives a harrowing account of conditions in the 2003 ABC-TV Four Corners documentary, “Homies”
The Salvation Army paid “compensation” to several victims, complete with the obligatory secrecy clause, and a signed waiver of future culpability by this organisation. Many were taken advantage of because of the difficulties associated with challenging the Salvation Army in court, coupled with their dire financial position. These clauses should be revoked, and claims raised again at the Royal Commission, while the matter of Captain Wilson must be revisited.
....
Facing Fears... Former Riverview boy Bob Toreaux in the room where the 'punishment parades' took place.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT, REPORTER: Scattered around Australia are crumbling structures that once housed the children society didn't want. These were children's homes, run by the most respectable bodies in the land - States, charities, churches, the Salvation Army. But for many older Australians, the memories are intensely painful.
TRISH PASCOE: The bitter, lonely years.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Why do you call it that?
TRISH PASCOE: Because they were bitter and lonely. That's the only thing I can use to describe it.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Some homes were well-run. In others, abuse turned children into angry, sometimes criminal, adults.
MAN IN SHADOW: To be truthful, I cannot look at a 13- or 14-year-old and not think, "I wouldn't mind that".
BEVERLEY FITZGERALD, PRESIDENT, QLD CHILDREN SERVICES TRIBUNAL: Its repercussions are enormous and they ripple out to every facet of a person's life, and we have to start looking at that.
JOHN DALZIEL, THE SALVATION ARMY: That trust has been betrayed and to the Australian public now, I apologise.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Tonight on Four Corners, the secret history of the extraordinary cruelty inflicted on children in care.
NEWSREEL: The Salvation Army is a strong supporter of the Scouting movement as a means of building healthy bodies and minds - ideals that are carried through to their schools for children from broken homes. For these youngsters, school is home.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, tens of thousands of boys and girls from broken homes were dispatched to institutions around Australia.
(PHOTOGRAPH LABELLED 'INDOOROOPILLY')
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: The damage some homes caused is still there in the lives of middle-aged Australians like Lewis Blayse.
LEWIS BLAYSE: It was out in the middle of nowhere, which is where most of these places were - out in the middle of nowhere.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Lewis Blayse went into care in 1950 when he was five months old. His parents simply couldn't cope.
LEWIS BLAYSE: My mother was about fifth-generation Australian, uh...English, Welsh. Year 6 education, uh...schizophrenia. My father came out as a refugee during World War II from Yugoslavia. The whole village was shot, eventually. Uh...he became a canecutter. He had two years education.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Lewis Blayse's fate was typical of an age when large numbers of children were institutionalised through no fault of their own, with no choice where they went. Placing them in a home run by a church or charity was seen as a safe, inexpensive option.
BEVERLEY FITZGERALD: Children placed in care was usually an economic motivation rather than a child development or child nurturing or child protection, and that the state found often the cheapest way to look after children.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Life in the hundreds of institutions around Australia was ordered and impersonal. At the age of nine, Lewis Blayse was sent to Indooroopilly - a Salvation Army home in Queensland where boys were referred to by numbers.
LEWIS BLAYSE: I was number 32. I'm sorry. I'm going to get upset if I hold that for too long. Number 32.
WALLY McLEOD: I was sent to Indooroopilly, supposedly for psychiatric treatment, of which I never got.
BARRY MASLEN: I was deemed a juvenile delinquent, and my single mother at the time couldn't cope with me.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Wally McLeod and Barry Maslen share memories of life in care. Their stories of life at Indooroopilly tally with Lewis Blayse's accounts.
WALLY McLEOD: You would get up, you would have breakfast, you would collect a lunch wrapped in rag, with dry mince, and you would be marched to school with an officer in a line of three rows.
LEWIS BLAYSE: The lining up, the...the whistles, the toilets, the lights-out time. You know, it was just military and...and your bunks are sort of like, you know, this far apart. No...not...no personal possessions. Spartan.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: The chores were as nothing compared with the discipline handed out by the officers in charge.
LEWIS BLAYSE: If you spoke in your own language, you got six cuts on each hand. If you spoke during meals, six cuts on each hand. If you stepped out of line, 'cause you had to line up everywhere, six cuts on each hand.
Lewis Blays
The Riverview Home run by the Salvation Army, until its license was revoked by the Queensland Government in 1977, is another of the institutions requiring a second look by the Royal Commission. All records were claimed to have been lost in the 1974 floods. The principal accused abuser, Captain Lawrence Wilson, was acquitted of all charges against him. However, the matter is far from settled in the minds of many.
It was ranked as the worst institution in Queensland by the 1998 Forde Inquiry. It was where many Indigenous “Stolen Generation” children were sent. The 1914 Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aborigines notes than several boys were sent there (see reference below). The Home was also the destination of many of the “child migrants”.
In 1956, the UK Home Office’s John Ross led a fact-finding committee to investigate Australian child migrant institutions, and found unfavourable conditions and poorly-trained staff in the 26 institutions it visited. The Committee’s confidential report blacklisted five institutions, among them the Salvation Army Riverview Boys’ Home.
On 7 December, 2010, at Old Parliament House, Canberra, in a closed event, the international leader of The Salvation Army, General Shaw Clifton, issued a national apology to former residents of Salvation Army Homes. The author was not invited to this function (nor to the national apology by Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull – too radical!).
Mr. Carlise says it took him 53 years to talk about his experiences at Riverview. His take on the whole apology thing is clear. “Sorry what does it mean?” he said. “It doesn’t mean a bloody thing to me. No apology and no amount of money in the whole wide world will get back what they took.”
Barry Maslen gives a harrowing account of conditions in the 2003 ABC-TV Four Corners documentary, “Homies”
The Salvation Army paid “compensation” to several victims, complete with the obligatory secrecy clause, and a signed waiver of future culpability by this organisation. Many were taken advantage of because of the difficulties associated with challenging the Salvation Army in court, coupled with their dire financial position. These clauses should be revoked, and claims raised again at the Royal Commission, while the matter of Captain Wilson must be revisited.
....
There will be no official order of events at this quiet reunion at the Riverview Training Farm for Boys, though speeches should start soon after the browning of Wally McLeod’s much-vaunted barbecue sausages. What matters is being here: making the turn off Ipswich Motorway, reaching the end of Endeavour Street, even when your stomach wants out; passing through the gates and trudging up that sorry driveway to stand in the places that haunt your dreams: the laundry, the lucerne field, the piggery, the shower block.
Facing Fears... Former Riverview boy Bob Toreaux in the room where the 'punishment parades' took place.
There’s a reason the semi-circle of 50 plastic chairs Bob Toreaux has set up face the entrance to the farm’s recreation hall. It’s the hall he sees in the recurring dream he has of a 12-year-old boy, naked from the waist down and straddling a wooden vaulting horse, blood running down his legs. It’s the hall they all see in their sleep.
...
“I don’t think money is going to make all that much difference,” says Bates. “These kids’ lives were compromised the day they walked into Riverview. Once a kid’s life is compromised you can never fill that hole. These people are so stuck back there that they’re looking for something magical that will change their lives. But there is no magic. Unfortunately, all they have is hard yards.”
They walk a long road, the boys of the Riverview Training Farm. But there is a way, says Bates, to ease their journey. She closes the folder of files and smiles earnestly.
Jonas en de rotte vis in het zwavelbad met belletjes; Het exorcisme van rorate leden binnen het Vlaams Parlement
Alexandra Colen bracht ook externen mee naar de meetings. Zo bijvoorbeeld Eric Jacqmin op de ochtend van 14 juni vorig jaar. Volgens de traditie van een priester van het Broederschap Pius X was Jacqmin helemaal in een zwarte soutane gekleed en verrichtte hij die dag een exorcisme in het parlementsgebouw in Brussel. Daar kwamen wijwater, een groot kruis, het liturgische boek 'Rituale Romanum' en een Latijnse bezwering aan te pas. De vaste club was aanwezig, met uitzondering van Ponthier, weet Knack. Ook de tweeling Robin en Rien Vandenberghe - beiden actief in Pius X - waren erbij.
Hague Court Declines Inquiry Into Church Abuse Cover-Up
New York Times
June 13, 2013
he International Criminal Court in The Hague has decided not to investigate or prosecute the former pope and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church on allegations of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests.
Victims of sexual abuse filed a complaint
in 2011 asking the court to prosecute Benedict XVI, then the pope, and
three other Vatican officials for what they called an international and
systemic cover-up of sexual abuse that amounted to “crimes against
humanity.”
The court responded in a letter dated May 31 that after analyzing the
complaint, it had determined that the matters “do not appear to fall
within the jurisdiction of the court.” The letter said that “some of the
allegations” fell outside the court’s jurisdiction, which is to
prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In addition, the case did not appear to meet the court’s time limits.
For the most part, the court may prosecute only crimes committed after
it was constituted in July 2002, and even though the cases submitted by
the victims involved more recent allegations, some of the supporting
material predated 2002.
The court said that “the decision not to proceed may be reconsidered in
the light of new facts or information,” and suggested that the cases
could be brought to “appropriate national or international authorities.”
The outcome was exactly what many international and human rights lawyers had anticipated. Barbara Blaine of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,
or SNAP, the victims advocacy group that initiated the case, said,
“We’re neither deterred nor discouraged by this news.”
Pamela Spees, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights who
handled the case for the victims group, said that she knew it faced
“many hurdles,” but that it was worthwhile because abuse victims from
many countries had stepped forward after hearing about the case being
taken to the International Criminal Court.
“We’re talking about people from more than 70 countries, survivors in
Africa and Latin America who were isolated before, and who now have a
whole different understanding of what happened to them and how it
relates to the church,” she said.
Ms. Spees said she had delayed making the letter public to give her
enough time to notify the victims in various countries who had presented
their cases to the court.
The complaint named Benedict, who stepped down in February and is now
pope emeritus; Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of
state; Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the previous secretary of state; and
Cardinal William J. Levada, an American who formerly led the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office
designated to receive cases of clergy sexual abuse forwarded by bishops.
donderdag, juni 13, 2013
woensdag, juni 12, 2013
World Day Against Child Labour; statement by Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General
| 12 June 2013 | ||||
| Geneva, Switzerland |
Child labour is a fundamental abuse of human rights. It denies girls and boys the right to be a child, to access quality education, and to hope for the future.
In its worst forms it exposes children to slavery, hazardous work and illicit activities, including drug trafficking and prostitution.
While significant progress has been made in reducing the number of child labourers worldwide, 215 million girls and boys remain at work, over half of them in the worst forms of child labour.
Child labour is most difficult to tackle when it takes place behind closed doors away from the public eye. This is frequently the case with child labour in domestic work, with children sometimes working far from their families and communities.
According to new ILO estimates, two out of every three children engaged in domestic work in the home of a third party, are working below the legal minimum age or in hazardous conditions. The majority are girls and some are working as a result of forced labour and trafficking. Stories of abuse are all too common.
On this World Day against Child Labour we make a strong appeal for urgent global action to tackle child labour in domestic work.
In particular we urge ILO member States to ratify and ensure effective implementation of the ILO’s Conventions on child labour and on domestic work. Just two years ago the ILO adopted new standards, Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201, which emphasize that domestic workers, like other workers, have the right to decent work. Convention No. 189 also states that the minimum age for domestic workers should be consistent with the provisions of the ILO’s child labour Conventions. These require that children should not work below the legal minimum age for employment or work, and that young workers above the minimum age should be employed in safe conditions.
In addition to preventing child labour, governments should take measures to protect adolescents of legal working age employed in domestic work. This includes limiting their hours of work, prohibiting night work; restricting work that is excessively demanding, and taking measures to ensure effective protection against all forms of abuse, harassment and violence.
While on this World Day against Child Labour we focus on the problem of child labour in domestic work, we must also restate the imperative of addressing the root causes of all forms of child labour.
We need to ensure that all children have access to a quality basic education and are learning, at least to the minimum age of employment.
We need national social protection floors that enable families, regardless of their circumstances, to send their children to school and to keep them there even in times of hardship.
And in today’s world we need to be more focused than ever on creating decent jobs for adults across as many sectors as possible.
 |
| Bijschrift toevoegen |
DECLARACIÓN DE LA PRESIDENCIA DE LA CLAR - Junio 11 de 2013
“Perhaps even a letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine (of the
Faith) will arrive for you, telling you that you said such or such
thing... But do not worry. Explain whatever you have to explain, but
move forward... Open the doors, do something there where life calls for
it. I would rather have a Church that makes mistakes for doing something
than one that gets sick for being closed up...,”
the Pope was quoted saying.
the Pope was quoted saying.
Clar 11-6-2013
Bogotá, Colombia, 11 de junio de 2013
DECLARACIÓN DE LA PRESIDENCIA DE LA CLAR
La Presidencia de la CLAR lamenta profundamente la publicación de un texto que se refiere a la conversación tenida con el Santo Padre Francisco durante el encuentro del pasado 6 de junio. Conversación que se desarrolló a partir de las preguntas hechas al Papa por los presentes.
En tal ocasión no se hizo grabación alguna de la conversación pero poco después se elaboró una síntesis de la misma con base en los recuerdos de los participantes. Esta síntesis, que no contiene las preguntas hechas al Santo Padre, estaba destinada a la memoria personal de los mismos participantes y de ninguna manera a la publicación para la cual, de hecho, no se había pedido autorización alguna.
Es claro que sobre esta base no se pueden atribuir al Santo Padre, con seguridad, las expresiones singulares contenidas en el texto, sino solo su sentido general.
La presidencia de la CLAR lamenta profundamente lo que ha sucedido y la confusión que esto ha podido crear.
Hna. Mercedes Leticia Casas Sánchez, FSpS P.
Presidenta
Gabriel Naranjo Salazar, CM
Secretario General
PROT: 3.1.1-09
dinsdag, juni 11, 2013
Aantal meldingen van misbruik in jeugdzorg stijgt
NRC
11-6-2013
door Annemarie Coevert
De inspectie is tevreden over het feit dat calamiteiten vaker worden gemeld, maar vindt dat preventie meer aandacht verdient. Volgens de inspectie kunnen sommige calamiteiten worden voorkomen als professionals doortastender handelen en zorg beter overdragen.
In totaal registreerde de Inspectie Jeugdzorg vorig jaar 130 calamiteiten. Hierbij zijn meldingen van seksueel overschrijdend gedrag, zelfmoord, delicten en ongevallen samengevoegd. In 2011 werden 94 calamiteiten gemeld. De inspectie onderscheidt calamiteiten en incidetenten. Calamiteiten moeten instellingen direct bij de inspectie melden, incidenten registreren en analyseren ze zelf. Seksueel overschrijdend gedrag geldt echter altijd als calamiteit.
11-6-2013
door Annemarie Coevert
Het aantal meldingen van seksueel
grensoverschrijdend gedrag in de jeugdzorg is het afgelopen jaar
gestegen van 33 naar 67. De meldingen variëren van licht tot zwaar
misbruik, blijkt uit het jaarbericht van de inspectie.
In
bijna de helft van de gevallen gaat het om misbruik door jongeren
onderling. Daarnaast worden meldingen gedaan van misbruik door ouders,
pleegouders of hulpverleners. Ongeveer twintig procent van de meldingen
in 2012 ging over voorvallen in eerdere jaren.'Meer aandacht voor seksueel misbruik'
De groeiende aandacht voor seksueel misbruik kan een oorzaak zijn van het verdubbelde aantal meldingen.De inspectie is tevreden over het feit dat calamiteiten vaker worden gemeld, maar vindt dat preventie meer aandacht verdient. Volgens de inspectie kunnen sommige calamiteiten worden voorkomen als professionals doortastender handelen en zorg beter overdragen.
In totaal registreerde de Inspectie Jeugdzorg vorig jaar 130 calamiteiten. Hierbij zijn meldingen van seksueel overschrijdend gedrag, zelfmoord, delicten en ongevallen samengevoegd. In 2011 werden 94 calamiteiten gemeld. De inspectie onderscheidt calamiteiten en incidetenten. Calamiteiten moeten instellingen direct bij de inspectie melden, incidenten registreren en analyseren ze zelf. Seksueel overschrijdend gedrag geldt echter altijd als calamiteit.
zaterdag, juni 08, 2013
vrijdag, juni 07, 2013
7 - 6 Red Deer, Alberta; it took a lot of guts
Reconciliation
By Rebecca Tabobodung
We are waking up to our history
from a forced slumber
We are breathing it into our lungs
so it will be part of us again
It will make us angry at first
because we will see how much you stole from us
and for how long you watched us suffer
we will see how you see us
and how when we copied your ways
it killed our own
We will cry and cry and cry
because we can never be the same again
But we will go home to cry
and we will see ourselves in this huge mess
and we will gently whisper the circle back
and it will be old and it will be new
Then we will breathe our history back to you
you will feel how strong and alive it is
and you will feel yourself become a part of it
And it will shock you at first
because it is too big to see all at once
and you won’t want to believe it
you will see how you see us
and all the disaster in your ways
how much we lost
And you will cry and cry and cry
because we can never be the same again
But we will cry with you
and we will see ourselves in this huge mess
and we will gently whisper the circle back
and it will be old and it will be new
Rebecca Tabobodung is a member of the Wasauksing First Nation (Parry Island, Ontario),
a poet, activist, and filmmaker. She lives in Toronto
"Watch trc_cvr at livestream.com">trc_cvr at livestream.com
Thank you
A Healing Journey for Us All, United Church of Canada, p11
Legacy Education: Knowledge to Support Families
A Symposium on Understanding the Impacts of Residential Schools on Families, Addictions and Violence
A Symposium on Understanding the Impacts of Residential Schools on Families, Addictions and Violence
donderdag, juni 06, 2013
deze vuist op deze vuist
MECHELEN (RKnieuws.net) — Ook het Hof van Cassatie beschouwt nu de huiszoekingen die op 24 juni 2010 in het kader van de fameuze “Operatie Kelk” in de kantoren van het aartsbisdom Mechelen-Brussel en de privéwoning van kardinaal Godfried Danneels werden verricht als een “fishing expedition”. Het oordeelde eind vorige maand definitief dat de Brusselse kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling eerder terecht die stukken nietig verklaarde en uit het onderzoeksdossier liet verwijderen. Er was namelijk opzettelijk getracht om door inbeslagneming van een groot aantal willekeurige documenten bewijzen te verzamelen van veronderstelde misdrijven waarvoor geen aanwijzing bestond. En dat is onwettig, want in tegenstelling tot wat wel eens wordt gedacht, volstaat voor een huiszoeking en inbeslagneming niet zomaar een bevelschrift door de onderzoeksrechter afgeleverd. Het moet met redenen zijn omkleed. Dat stelt hoofdredacteur Geert De Kerpel deze week in het christelijk opinieweekblad Tertio.
Merkwaardig genoeg was dit arrest amper enkele lijnen in de pers waard. Wat een verschil met de immense media-aandacht waarop de huiszoekingen destijds konden rekenen. De “vliegende dozen” die het team van onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy door de ramen van het aartsbisschoppelijke paleis gooiden, de kardinaal die onder het oog van de spiedende camera’s naar de kathedraal werd geloodst om er een graf aan te wijzen waarin geheime dossiers verborgen zouden zitten: evenveel krachtige beelden die op het netvlies werden gebrand en een evenwichtige oordeelsvorming van de publieke opinie danig onder druk hebben gezet. Nochtans kan deze uitspraak van het hoogste rechtscollege van ons land niet worden onderschat. Want na alle heisa bekrachtigt het finaal en eens te meer een van de basisprincipes van onze rechtstaat: niemand mag het slachtoffer worden van illegale onderzoeksdaden.
Al even opmerkelijk was de reactie van advocaat Walter Van Steenbrugge en hoogleraar Joachim Meese (UA) die slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in een pastorale relatie verdedigen. Zij beschuldigden prompt Cassatie van klassenjustitie. Meese liet op de radio (Nieuwe Feiten) zelfs, schermend met de Antigoontoets, in het midden dat er misschien wel duistere krachten in het voordeel van de kerk aan het werk waren. Altijd bewerend dat recht moet geschieden, is hét basisprincipe van de rechtstaat voor deze pleiters blijkbaar plots van geen tel meer: iemand is onschuldig tot het tegendeel is bewezen. Laat staan dat processen in de media worden gevoerd. We staan hier overigens ook ver van correcte journalistiek, want aan de gratuit beschuldigden werd geen kans tot wederwoord geboden.
Intussen trachten de verantwoordelijken van de Belgische kerk vooral te werken aan verzoening en heling met wie is misbruikt in een pastorale relatie. In elk bisdom werden zelfs opvangpunten opgericht voor slachtoffers van inmiddels verjaarde en dus niet-juridisch vervolgbare feiten. Tegelijk werkt de kerk volop mee met het centrum inzake arbitrage voor seksueel misbruik. Honderden slachtoffers hebben zich al gemeld en honderdduizenden euro uitkeringen werden al toegekend. Wordt hiermee het aangedane leed goedgemaakt? Helemaal niet, maar het toont wel aan dat de katholieke kerk zich in ons land niet wegstopt achter juridische procedures. En zo hoort het ook. Seksueel misbruik is kwaad en zonde van de ergste soort. Begaan door vertegenwoordigers van de katholieke kerk, slaat het ook nog eens de bodem zelf van onder al waar de instelling voor staat. Dag na dag moeten de kerkelijke verantwoordelijken nu verder bewijzen dat het hen menens is met hun nieuwe beleid voor preventie, sanctie en herstel.
Tegelijk is het evenzeer in het belang van slachtoffers dat advocaten hen geen zaken meer voorspiegelen die toch niet hard kunnen worden gemaakt. Het leidt alleen maar tot nieuwe teleurstellingen en nog meer ellende.
woensdag, juni 05, 2013
Petitioning Pope Francis, The Vatican
Pope Francis, The Vatican: For Christ's Sake Stop Sexual Abuse.... for good!
-
Petition by
Sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has been nothing short of an epidemic of catastrophic proportions. The devastation of victims, the ruination of priests and religious, the damage to a major world religion and its faithful are horrendous and incalculable.Australian Bishops - Geoffrey Robinson, Bill Morris and Pat Power call on the new Pope to seize the opportunity of his appointment to not only sweep the Church clean but to put His /God’s house in order for all time.
ROYAL COMMISSION WILL NOT PREVENT SEXUAL ABUSE FROM HAPPENING – FOR GOOD.Bishop Robinson identifies three major tasks to be performed in eradicating sexual abuse from the Church: identifying and removing all offenders; reaching out to, and assisting, all victims and survivors; and identifying and overcoming the causes of both abuse and the poor response to abuse by the Church’s hierarchy. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is investigating the first two of these tasks however it does not have the scope or power to make the changes necessary to ensure that systemic sexual abuse NEVER happens again in the Catholic Church.Bishops Robinson has considerable expertise, having been involved in these first two fields for eighteen years. He and Bishops Morris and Power firmly believe there is a desperate need to address the third element: preventing abuse from happening in the first place . . . for good! He is calling for nothing less than a Council of the whole Church, inclusive of the laity, to confront the issues that contribute to the causes of systemic sexual abuse.MANY CATHOLIC GROUPS CALL FOR CHANGE.Bishops Robinson, Morris and Power believe it’s time to unite as one voice that the Vatican can no longer ignore.
There are many people and many groups around the world seeking change in the Catholic Church. Though they may have slightly different emphases, there are a number of changes, common to all groups. These groups are calling out for:-
1) Greater Inclusiveness – a Church that is as much for women as for men, for laypeople as for clergy, for the marginalised as for those in the mainstream.
2) Greater Openness – if there are scandals, it is better to bring them into the light and confront them rather than seek to conceal them.
3) Greater Participation – not taking away the power of the Pope, but asking for greater participation and consultation, so that the whole Church may have a more active role in the mission of the Church.
4) Greater Sense of Mission – a greater concentration on the person and mission of Jesus Christ rather than on authority, laws, obedience and theological conformity.
IT’S TIME FOR ACTION
This global petition will give Catholics a collective voice. It will let the new Pope know the intensity and solidarity we feel in relation to the sexual abuse issue. It will show him that the whole Church wants to help him, to work with him on this issue of paramount importance. We want the new Pope to lead the Church into a future he and all Catholics yearn for - and the world needs.
FOR CHRIST’S SAKE - FIND YOUR VOICE AND GIVE YOUR SUPPORT
By signing this petition you are assisting every Catholic group calling for change. You are helping to create something very special: - the voice of the faithful. You will be helping to create a church for the future, free of sexual abuse, full of participation and inclusiveness–, a Church where loving God, through Jesus Christ makes us proud and full of the Holy Spirit. This is the voice we want the Vatican to hear.
So if you are Catholic and believe that it’s time for the Church to listen to its people; if you’re a Catholic who wants to stamp out sexual abuse from ever occurring again please sign this petition.
For Christ’s and our Church’s sake encourage your family, friends and fellow parishioners to do the same. Together, as Catholics we can make a change.
For more details on Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s action plan to end sexual abuse¬- for good, read his latest book, For Christ Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church…for good.
To:Pope Francis, The VaticanWe, the undersigned members of the Catholic Church, have been sickened by the continuing stories of sexual abuse within our Church, and we are appalled by the accounts of an unchristian response to those who have suffered.
When so many people either offend or respond poorly, we cannot limit ourselves to blaming individuals, but must also look at systemic causes. The situation is so grave that we call for an Ecumenical Council to respond to the one question of doing everything possible to uproot such abuse from the Church and produce a better response to victims. An essential part of this call is that the laity of the whole world should have a major voice in the Council (for it is our children who have been abused or put at risk), and that the following subjects be included:
1. The continuing influence of the idea of an angry God
2. The immaturity that arises from passive obedience in adults
3. The teaching of the Church on sexual morality
4. The part played in abuse by celibacy, especially obligatory celibacy
5. The lack of a strong feminine influence in every aspect of the Church
6. The idea that through ordination the priest is taken above other people (clericalism)
7. The lack of professionalism in the life of priests and religious
8. The unhealthy situations in which many priests and religious are required to live
9. The constant placing of right beliefs before right actions
10. The passion for secrecy and the hiding of faults within the Church, especially in the Vatican
11. The ways in which the protection of papal authority has been put before the eradication of sexual abuse
12. The provision of structures to make a reality of the ‘sense of faith’ (sensus fidei) of all Catholic people
13. The need for each Conference of Bishops to have the authority to compel individual bishops to follow common decisions in this matter.Sincerely,[Your name]-
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