Action against sexual offenders too slow

Priest (Fr. Tom Brennan) dies facing sex crime cover-up charges

I refuse to accept the line spun in this story by the Catholic traditionalists that Fr. Brennan is "being judged in another place". That is simply not good enough. After all, if Divine Justice (if it exists at all) were to be regarded as adequate, why do we have Police Forces, and Courts and Prisons?
 
Lets get real, folks. These crimes are real crimes - against children.

Lets remember that it is more than 30 years since these matters were first raised with Fr. Brennan. His initial response was to beat with a cane the children who dared to report the offences to him. Talk about punishing the victims.

The Church has known about these issues for decades, and now we are being asked for "respect, sensitivity and compassion". It is not good enough, Fr. Tunks. The Catholic Church must accept corporate responsibility for its failures in this and many, many other cases. Cardinal Pell, (who has his own history with regard to "supporting" paedophile priests) ought be forced to use his position as the Prelate of Australia, and show leadership - by bringing all known cases into the light.

Cardinal Pell, (then Bishop of Ballarat)
supported known sex offenders such as Fr Gerald Ridsdale.

Priest dies facing sex crime cover-up charges. (Read the full story)

• Newcastle Vicar General Barry Tunks asked the community for ‘‘respect, sensitivity and compassion’’ yesterday after the death of controversial Catholic priest Tom Brennan.
• Father Brennan’s death came only days after a Newcastle magistrate was told the priest was too ill to attend court on two concealing crime charges, and eight charges of sexually assaulting a boy, 8, at Waratah in the 1980s. He was also charged with assaulting two boys by caning them in the 1970s for reporting a priest had sexually assaulted them.
• The priest died of cancer at Hunter Valley Private Hospital at 5.15pm on Sunday after making history in August as the first Australian clergy member to be charged with concealing the child sex crimes of a notorious paedophile priest. (DJW notes: a different person from Fr. Brennan)
• Strikeforce Georgiana Detective Sergeant Kristi Faber alleged the notorious paedophile priest  sexually assaulted 31 boys after Father Brennan, a former principal of St Pius X, Adamstown, was first warned of the offences in 1978.
• A Hunter man named Tom, who overcame Father Brennan’s false statement in 2000 to record the first successful action by a victim against the notorious priest, said Father Brennan ‘‘wasn’t big enough’’ to admit he had been repeatedly told about the paedophile priest in the 1970s.

Personal Disclaimer: Fr. Barry Tunks was a class-mate of one of my brothers, and I knew him vaguely when I was a young Seminarian myself, back in the 1960s.

Sleeping Lies will Dog You, Cardinal Pell.

Sleeping Lies will Dog You, Cardinal Pell.
It is with shame and disappointment (but no surprise) that I read today that Cardinal Pell is still sticking to his legalistic line regarding an "apology" to Mr Jones, the man at the centre of a sex abuse non-apology which Cardinal Pell filibustered over, prior to the Pope's visit.

You may read the story in "The Age" (Fairfax) website today.

For goodness sake, Cardinal Pell, get on with the job which is surely to deliver JUSTICE - if you know what the word means - to Mr Jones. Stop being "political" just for a moment, if you can. Fix the problem.Admit that Jones was abused.
Admit that you covered it up.
Face the truth.

Then, get on with delivering justice to all other victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church in Australia.

If you do not do this, other lies will continue to dog you, Cardinal Pell.

"Pell-ter Skelter"

The Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell has failed in his lobbying this week against the Stem Cell research bill. In so doing he has damaged his own public standing.

THE SMH reports today:

"The Catholic Church supports adult stem cell research, especially for health cures, and remains opposed to the destruction of human life," Cardinal Pell said in a statement.

"In our democracy, parliament legislates. I regret the vote of the NSW Legislative Assembly on cloning and hope that the Legislative Council will be better informed."

"The cardinal said the Sydney Catholic Life Office was prepared to offer information to "any person who wishes to understand the pro-life position better". Cardinal Pell has come under attack by MPs after he said Catholic politicians who voted in favour of the bill could expect consequences for their place in the life of the church."

*****

The failure of Cardinal Pell to bring with him the openly Catholic members of the NSW Legislative Assembly has raised the public profile of Pell's lack of "authority" - and believe me, Cardinal Pell is an "authoritarian."

His public hectoring of elected members of Parliament has also allowed avidly anti-Papist commentators of the Far Right to link Pell's rantings with an unlikely bedfellow, Sheik Taj Aldin al-hilali. The question is too easily asked: What would people think if Sheik Hilali tried to exercise the same "authority" over elected Members of Parliament? There would be screams of outrage, and threats of investigations of breach of Parliamentary Privilege. Why would the same issues not be raised against Cardinal Pell?

The Cardinal needs to realise that he is not Archbishop Danny Mannix, and it is not Australia during the 1950s.

*****

While on the subject of Cardinal Pell, I wonder quite what he was doing visiting the ANSTO's Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor on 23 November 2006. See the Bragg Institute's website. Scroll down for the photo of 23 November. Even the Bragg Institute's website makes no comment on what George was doing there. I wonder if they invited him, or if he asked for permission to visit?
*Photo of Cardinal Pell (top) "courtesy of" Larvatus Prodeo, although I note that it was taken in Germany, but they did not give a photo credit.
** Photo of Danny Mannix courtesy of the amazing website of the "Catholic Diocese of the Australian Military" (I kid you not - there is such a "diocese").

I note with fascination that by the end of WW1, Daniel Mannix, who had (in 1914) publicly condemned Australia's participation in the War, and actively opposed Billy Hughes's referendum on Conscription (in 1917), was appointed - in that same year - by the Department of Defence to be Army Chaplain-General (Catholic). This ironic situation arose following the death of the previous incumbent, Archbishop Carr. Archbishop Mannix succeeded Carr in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, and the was then nominated by the Catholic Bishops to take over Carr's former responsibilities. The Department of Defence must have been grinding their teeth when they made that appointment, for at the start of the war, many people regarded Mannix as a traitor. Here he was being appointed as Army Chaplain-General, less than four years later!

As Wikipedia says:
"By the end of the war Mannix was the recognised leader of the Irish community in Australia, idolised by Catholics but detested by many Anglo-Australian Protestants, including those in power federally and in Victoria - for many years he was ostracised and not invited to the official functions his position would have entitled him to attend."

My, my, the irony of politics of Church and State in Australia.