LLO
Written 3-5-23.
This was a turning point for me. I wrote this two years ago.
I cannot be Catholic anymore. I had one taste of the poison handed out by the clergy. It nearly destroyed me. Others, so many others, have been given the same poison. So many have died. And the clergy and the laity they have groomed into their service (like their lawyers) hand out this poison readily. I have experienced it first-hand. I do not know if they even keep track of right or wrong anymore. This is the only explanation I can think of.
The following is from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Abuse in Australia in 2015. Read the report here.
The report of Case Study 8 examined the Catholic Church’s response to a complaint of child sexual abuse by Mr John Ellis and the litigation he subsequently commenced. As a child, Mr Ellis was sexually assaulted by Father Aidan Duggan from about 1974 to 1979. Father Duggan continued to abuse Mr Ellis into his early adult years.
The Commissioners found that the Archdiocese of Sydney fundamentally failed Mr Ellis in its conduct of the Towards Healing process by not complying with the principles of Towards Healing and not giving him the assistance demanded by justice and compassion when determining the amount of reparation offered to Mr Ellis, and by not providing him with a spiritual director.
The Commissioners also found that the Archdiocese of Sydney failed to conduct the litigation with Mr Ellis in a manner that adequately took account of his pastoral and other needs as a victim of sexual abuse.
The Archdiocese wrongly concluded that it had never accepted that Father Duggan had abused Mr Ellis. This conclusion allowed Cardinal Pell to instruct the Archdiocese’s lawyers to maintain the non-admission of Mr Ellis’s abuse.
The Archdiocese accepted the advice of its lawyers to vigorously defend Mr Ellis’ claim. One reason Cardinal Pell decided to accept this advice was to encourage other prospective plaintiffs not to litigate claims of child sexual abuse against the Church.
The Royal Commission agrees with Cardinal Pell’s evidence that the Archdiocese, the Trustees and he as Archbishop, did not act fairly from a Christian point of view in the conduct of the litigation against Mr Ellis.
Other findings included that the then Director of Professional Standards in NSW, Mr John Davoren, acted inconsistently with Towards Healing principles when responding to Mr Ellis’s claim, and that the length of time taken to inform Mr Ellis that the Archdiocese would not pursue the costs of litigation awarded against him had an adverse effect on Mr Ellis’s health.
And yet people speak so highly and glorify these men like Cardinal Pell. The laity are active participants in the abuse.