(Georgie Crozie, chairwomen of the Victoria abuse inquiry)
Parliamentarians in Victoria, Australia, have delivered their report into the way churches and non-government organisations in the Australian state have responded to child sexual abuse.
Barney Swartz writes:
It began slowly, amid some well-merited cynicism, but on Wednesday the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sexual abuse delivered – and brilliantly.
…It was not just the recommendations, it was the tone. The inquiry had heard the victims – and believed them. It gave the vital verdict: vindication
The inquiry heard from the church hierarchy too, in particular the Catholic Church – and took a far more sceptical view.
…The consistent church line was that there had been problems in the past, but these were largely solved by the two church abuse protocols, and no one now in authority bore any responsibility. The committee did not concur.
Chairwoman Georgie Crozier used language like “pattern of criminal behaviour”, “betrayal beyond comprehension”, and spoke of parents being groomed, and the covering of wrongdoing to protect reputations and money.
Committee member Andrea Coote said the church minimised and trivialised the problem, behaved in complete contrast to its purported values, saw child abuse as a “short-term embarrassment” that did not require examination of the church’s own culture.
