How many Cardinals will return from Rome?

In Australia on Friday, Cardinal “Big George” Pell luxuriously draped his massive frame up the pointy end of a plane, heading for Rome and the preliminary rounds of the title fight known as the papal conclave.

There he will duck and weave and sucker punch with the best of them before taking part in the official scrum to enthrone a new paedophile protector in chief.

Meanwhile in the US, lawyers are busy taking statements from Cardinals Dolan and Mahony in regard to child rape cases, before they also leave for Rome. These lawyers were determined their depositions occurred prior to the Cardinals’ departure. The lawyers are either not prepared to wait for the Cardonals’ return, or not sure if they will return at all.

And not just because Dolan is touted by some as a contender to succeed Ratzinger as the One Most in Need of Vatican Diplomatic Immunity.

With victims, lawyers, media and law enforcement finally uncovering ever more evidence of widespread crimes against children and against humanity, it becomes increasingly likely the numbers of Cardinals joining the disgraceful Cardinal Law as fugitives from justice in the Vatican will swell.

The papal enclave provides the perfect excuse for Cardinals to take an extended leave of absence from the local jurisdiction and flock to the foreign state where their true loyalty lies.

But when the fight is over and the victor pulls on his mantle of manufactured infallibility, will Pell return to his home shores and face the tough questions sure to be fired at him by the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry and the Royal Commission?

Will he submit to attempts to uncover the truth of his actions to protect paedophiles?

Will he actually disclose any of the sordid details of his willingness to sacrifice the safety of children?

Will he hand over any of his secret files?

Will he even place himself within reach of Australian law enforcement and the possibility of jail for his role in the enabling and coverup of child sex crimes.

Or will the wickedly expensive Domus Australia in Rome become, surprise, surprise, his opulent new permanent home?

Will he take out citizenship of the paedophile protectors’ favourite rogue state?

Will he be honoured by his fellow paedophile protectors with a prestigious and influential Vatican sinecure?

Will Australians catholics, left in the lurch to face the fallout from such a clear admission of guilt, finally realise their hierarchy only look after themselves?

Will such blatant flaunting of our laws undermine the undeserved respect and corrupt influence of this criminal organisation?

And will Australian officials do anything about it if Pell does decide to hide out in criminal friendly Rome?

Or will the excuse of a prestigious Vatican posting make hiding from justice okay?

These are far more interesting questions than the one the Vatican is trying to keep world attention glued to, “who will be the next pope?”

News flash – it will be a rich and arrogant old man in a dress who spends his life playing dress ups and demands to wield ultimate moral authority over billions while being himself a moral vacuum.

And nothing but the name will change.

Now can we please get back to trying to protect children?

Stay safe everyone.

VV

Rat in the Vat Gives Up Funny Hat

Out of the blue, the world’s most powerful paedophile protector has announced he is handing over the keys to the best room in the Vatican.

This sudden and unexpected break with six centuries of tradition, where aged and often senile Popes usually only release their maniacal grasp on absolute power with their final breath, demonstrates just how easy it is to unleash radical change on previously unquestionable and immoveable Vatican customs, if, and this is the big if, there is a genuine desire for such change.

But in the area of protecting innocent children and unsuspecting communities from the perverted monsters so beloved of Ratzinger and his hierarchy, change has always been impossible.

Because there is no desire to put children first.

No desire to protect the innocent and the vulnerable instead of those who rape them and destroy their innocence.

No desire to deliver on oft repeated but still meaningless promises of truth, justice and healing.

So a change in the name of the paedophile protector in chief will not deliver a change to the policy of protecting the reputation and wealth of the institution and its hierarchy, no matter the cost to victims.

There is no voice amongst the hierarchy asking for real change.

Under JPII and B16 any such voices were ruthlessly eradicated.

Excluded, sidelined, ostracised, victimised and silenced.

The route to Vatican power is only open to those who support, not challenge, those already in power.

Yes men, mediocrities, conservatives, narcissists.

Those obsessed with the trappings and seductions of wealth, power and influence.

Those, like George Pell, adept at denying justice to victims while creating a facade of concern and of change.

None of the possible candidates for the funny hat will deliver change, though there will be plenty more empty promises.

And those in the running will not care how much damage their refusal to deliver change on this issue will endanger children or further damage victims or even damage the church itself. They only need to delay the inevitable march of justice until they are too old or dead to care.

As Ratso has himself demonstrated so tellingly, if they want to, they can change.

And they can act, swiftly and decisively, if they really want to. Like in cases of really serious crimes, such as discussing the possibility of the ordination of women.

They can even arrest and imprison wrong doers in their ranks.  Like in cases of the very worst criminals, such as the Pope’s butler, who revealed the truth about Vatican corruption to the media.

So, unconcerned with which particular power obsessed old man in a dress will now take possession of the solid gold toilet with diamond encrusted handle, there is really only one important question to ponder about this announcement.

Why did Pope Pinocchio retire?

I don’t for a moment swallow the line about age and infirmity. Ill health is the excuse they always use when moving rapists away because the locals are starting to twig to what is going on.

What’s your favourite conspiracy theory?

Post a comment below.

And, in tribute to the disgraceful reign of a self serving despot, here’s a list of a few of my favourite names for the old fraud.

B16, Ratso, Ratty, Benny the Rat, Bene the Bad, the Rat in the Vat, Rat in a dress, Pope Rat, Pope Nazi, Pope Pinocchio, Paedophile Protecting Pope, paedophile protector in chief, Protector of the Paedophiles, Monarch of the Paedophiles, Pied Piper of Paedophiles, His Weathiness, His Greediness, Monarch of the Rapists, the criminal known as BXVI, occupant of the best room in the Vatican, power obsessed narcissist, and rich old man who likes to play dress ups and has an out of control God-complex.

Stay safe everyone.

VV

Addendum:

Imagine my delight at a new name reflecting the despot’s hasty exit – Ex Benedict

Love it!

Child Rape, Truth and Politics

Regular readers will know Voiceless Victim was chosen to represent victims at a morning tea with the Australian Prime Minster, Julia Gillard, at her gorgeous official Sydney residence, Kirribilli House, the day after the announcement of the terms of reference for our long awaited Royal Commission.

Since you could not all be there, the least I can do is share with you what I learned, and what I experienced.

We gathered at a nearby hotel to fill in consent forms and wait till the official party were ready to receive us.

Here was my first and only disappointment of this momentous day.

Some of those who most deserved to be there were not invited.

The list of those who should have been there is very long. I understand they could not invite everyone. But not inviting Chrissie and Anthony Foster, and their two surviving daughters Katie and Aimee, shows that those putting together the invitation list still have a lot to learn about who are the real contributors to this issue.

Some were invited who had no right to be there, who have worked in this area, but whose actions actively harm victims, and whose motives are less than pure. These self serving vultures were preening themselves smugly at being included in “the few” and sneering at “the many” who did not make the cut. Their salivating at the prospect of influence, media attention and generous funding to come their way was nauseating.

I have heard much about such opportunistic frauds and the harm they have done in Ireland from the amazing Irish defender of victims’ rights, Hanora Brennan.

It is very sad to see them rear their ugly heads in Australia even before our hard won Royal Commission has begun. But it is inevitable.

We must accept such creatures will appear, no matter what we do, and should we slay the current dragons they would simply make way for more of the same, inevitably attracted to the government gravy on offer, pushing the needs of victims aside in their desperate scramble to fill the gaping emotional holes in themselves.

But genuine victims and those genuinely working to help victims can take action to keep the focus on the needs of victims. I will address this topic specifically in a future post.

Back at Kirribilli House we were joined by representatives of the Forgotten Australians and the Stolen Generations. It was interesting to note that while some of us discussed our hopes for the success of the Royal Commission, Aboriginal representatives were slow to hope and wary of trusting government promises.

I don’t blame them.

Whatever we have suffered, they have suffered ten times worse. However much we have been lied to and betrayed by those in power, they have endured ten times the lies and betrayals. We must all remember they are our brothers and sisters in suffering, and especially deserving of truth, justice and healing. The real stuff, not the Catholic smokescreen, PR stunt, meaningless words with no action type.

After a security check we lined up to do the official greeting with Julia Gillard, and Jenny Macklin, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. We shook hands first with Jenny, then if she knew us she introduced us to Julia, or if she didn’t, we introduced ourselves.

Say your name, smile, shake hands, move on for the next person to take your place. Simple.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get my name out. I burst into tears, right in front of the waiting, and now delighted, media.

As I struggled to compose myself enough to croak out my name, I could see the media trying not to celebrate too obviously at the prospect of a “crying victim” shot with Julia.

Julia was gracious, patient and understanding.

I’m not sure if she could hear my name, but I think she heard the “thank you” that followed it.

I have done enough healing not to beat myself up about bursting into tears on meeting the Prime Minister. Or to let the prospect of photos of my distress being splattered around the media disturb me. I can shut those unhelpful emotions out.

What overwhelmed me was that after decades of our abuse being allowed to continue unhindered by those supposed to protect little children, and ignored by the whole country, suddenly the most powerful politician in Australia was putting investigating and taking action to stop the crimes against us right at the top of our national priorities, where it belongs.

As I explained when I emerged into the stunning harbourside gardens, they were good tears. Good because finally we were going to get the help we had always deserved. But being treated well upsets me. Never having experienced it, I don’t know how to handle it. I can handle being abused, dismissed, ignored, or treated as worthless, insignificant, beneath notice or a liar.

But to be treated as an innocent grievously harmed by cunning criminals, worthy of an investigation of the truth, of healing and of law reform to prevent similar crimes – well, like all of us, that is something I have been ruthlessly denied.

Something the Catholic church works tirelessly to prevent happening.

Something I find overwhelming.

It is something we are all going to have to get used to in 2013.

Julia spoke briefly to us as a group. She spoke without notes and her staff informed me it was unscripted, and her own words.

It was compassionate and well considered like her two terrific speeches to announce the Royal Commission itself and its Terms of Reference.

I spoke to many of the staffers and advisers surrounding Julia and Jenny and found them as a group to be enthusiastic and knowledgeable about this issue, with a genuine commitment to delivering justice to victims and implementing real changes.

Jenny Macklin has a solid background of working in this area and was greeted with delight as an old friend by many of the Forgotten Australians and Stolen Australians. That is very encouraging.

I spoke to our Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, one on one for some minutes, and spoke at length to her staffers. As far as is possible to gauge from such a short acquaintance, I feel confident Julia has a genuine commitment to and understanding of this issue, not just a political commitment.

I don’t have a lot of respect for politicians as a breed and politics as a whole. It attracts so many self seekers and influence peddlars, so many whose opinions and morals (or lack of them) are for sale that most aspirants with a genuine desire to improve our society fall away in disgust at what a dirty, filthy game it is, or are punished for not playing power games well enough.

But in recent months Julia has been starting to earn my respect. She gave the smirking royalist former seminarian mysogynist Tony (some of my best friends are women) Abbott what for and gave all Australian women hope that we can change the blokey, jokey, don’t get your knickers in a twist, vicious mysogyny that infects our culture.

Julia has also taken action on climate change, on making greedy mining companies contribute rather than just steal, on care of our disabled, on mental health and so many other issues. I don’t agree with everything she has done, and her tenuous hold on power means compromise, serious compromise is inevitable.

But unlike many of her predecessors and her opponent in this years’ election, she has tried to to take on important issues. Issues that could make this country a great place to raise children. Issues that are deserving of attention, not just attractive to voters.

One of the issues I raised with Julia at the morning tea was the need to overcome legal professional privilege, as this is one of the most likely scams catholic officials will use to hide the truth from the Royal Commission. Along with shredding documents and sending them to the Vatican.

Julia assured me that despite the ability to overcome legal professional privilege not being conferred automatically by the Royal Commissions Act, this Royal Commission would be able to use such power, if the Commissioners ask for it.

We need to ensure the Commissioners ask for this power, and for many other things.

Because the Royal Commission is now out of the hands of the politicians. I feel comfortable that the politicians, led by Julia Gillard, have done the best possible job under the circumstances.

Who would have thought that in the space of a few months we would have been given the Royal Commission we were told so many times would never happen, and it has been established as a genuine attempt to succeed in its stated aims.

But in this it is almost unique.

We are accustomed to those inquiries that are allowed to proceed suffering in their ability to uncover the truth as a result of the corrupt influence of catholic church officials and other powerful protectors of those who prey on children.

This is the first such inquiry not designed from the beginning to fail.

But it still can fail.

The Commissioners are now the ones who can deliver us justice or prevent its delivery.

It is up to all of us who have knowledge and experience of these terrible crimes to help them and to advise them in the delivery of truth, justice and healing, and the fight against the vested interests who will use all their wealth, power and influence to hide the truth, evade justice and deny us healing.

But even if the corrupt and the guilty snatch the truth from us, and the self serving steal the assistance meant for victims, they can never take away the fact that we were here.

A Royal Commission, a genuine desire for change, and victims honoured guests of the Prime Minister.

We have already, all of us, achieved great things, and we should all smile to ourselves and think, “They tried to stop this ever happening, and they failed.”

Stay safe everyone.

VV

George “Marie Antoinette” Pell tells victims to eat Legal Aid cake

Like the opulently robed 18th Century Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, who reportedly dismissed her  starving peasants’ need for bread with the stunningly insensitive quip, “let them eat cake”, the opulently robed Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, yesterday dismissed child rape victims’ need for legal representation with the cold hearted evasion, “they can use Legal Aid”.

George, like the original Marie, completely missed the point of the injustice being highlighted.

The comparison between the flock of sinfully expensive top tier legal hot shots who shield the wealthy Cardinal and his paedophile priests from justice, and the almost insurmountable barriers preventing access to legal representation for the innocent children impoverished as a direct result of the crimes committed by those expensively protected paedophiles is stark enough by itself.

But this further demonstration of George Pell’s smug inhumanity to victims was uttered as he left the Red Mass – an annual event in many cities where the catholic hierarchy commands and receives a public expression of submission to its will and interests from the cream of the legal profession.

Shockingly, supposedly impartial judges are foremost among those eager to demonstrate their willingness to put allegiance to and protection of the pope, his Vatican officials and his local agents above the secular law of the state and country they are supposed to serve.

Pell ran into victims’ advocates as he scurried from St Mary’s Cathedral, where the mass was held, to the morning tea where those who sat through the arrogantly colourful display could ensure their attendance was duly noted by hard faced catholic officials. Once this important box is ticked, attendees’ can feel satisfied their possibility of acquiring lucrative postings or prestigious invitations, or of getting their children or grandchildren into the most exclusive schools will be significantly improved.

Pell’s Marie Antoinette moment came in response to a question from a victims’ advocate, asking how victims could access even a fraction of the legal might Pell had summoned to his side yesterday morning.

The slighting reference to begging for Legal Aid being good enough for victims clearly indicates that a level legal playing field – a fair chance at justice for victims – is the last thing Pell wants.

Not satisfied with routinely denying victims assistance to heal so he can spend more on his own legal muscle to deny them justice as well, Pell then put his elegantly shod foot even further down his own throat.

“I’m on your side”, he trumpeted.

As Pell stutteringly tried to elaborate on this outrageous fiction, and failed, we gave the clumsy cardinal an opportunity to turn his fiction into reality. We offered Pell a meeting with victims to discuss ways he could actually help victims, rather than just claim to do so.

But like his regularly repeated claim to be doing everything possible to help victims, Pell’s claim to be on our “side” was all talk and no action.

He left muttering disgustedly, “I’ve already done that”, as if it was somehow our fault that he attends deliberately rare meetings with victims resolutely determined neither to listen to us nor to bend from his Vatican ordered position of denial, evasion and coverup.

There was no way George “Marie Antoinette” Pell was going to waste any of his precious time, now, or any time in the future, listening to victims or attempting to understand our needs and concerns.

A strikingly similar attitude to that attributed to the ill-fated and out of touch Queen of France, who, as we all know, lost her throne and her head as a result of the arrogance, corruption and abuse of power of her reign.

I sincerely hope today’s Marie, presiding over a monarchical system rife with those very same vices, does not share the historical Queen’s fate.

Especially since I am so looking forward to visiting dear Marie in jail when our justice system finally becomes transparent enough to be applied equally to all citizens.

When inviting senior judges and the state’s Attorney General to a fancy dress party and morning tea no longer results in church officials being able to hide their crimes behind a sacred smokescreen that magically elevates them above the law.

Stay safe everyone.

VV

Voiceless Victim Invited to Tea with the Prime Minister

Who would have imagined as little as twelve months ago, that Australian victims would be about to start work on their submissions to the Royal Commission into institutional child sex abuse we were told so many times would never happen.

And that we would be generally pretty happy with its newly announced Terms of Reference and Commissioners.

And that Australian child sexual abuse victims, heartlessly excluded from the 2008 papal apology in Sydney that was supposedly addressed to us and for our benefit, would be the guests of honour at a morning tea with the Prime Minister.

That, dear friends, is the surreal situation we will find ourselves in tomorrow at Kirribilli House, Sydney.

The cuppa and bikkies we consume tomorrow will not just fill the bellies of the representative few.

They will fill the hearts of all victims with a hitherto foreign emotion.

It is called hope.

We know Julia is using us for a photo opp.

We know there is a healthy dose of political expediency in her announcement.

But at the end of the day, this gutsy woman, Julia Gillard, was the first Prime Minister in Australian history to make the call to a Cardinal Prince of the church and tell him “You’re not going to like this mate, but I’m doing it anyway.”

I will carry all of you with me in my heart tomorrow.

You will all be there, where you deserve to be.

Guests of honour, invited by the Prime Minister.

No longer neglected.

No longer abandoned.

No longer voiceless.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Catholic Church Funded Statistics Part II

It was encouraging to learn today that German researchers working with catholic officials to produce the latest, supposedly independent, supposedly research based support for Vatican lies about endemic child rape by catholic religious have had enough and pulled the plug on the project.

Read the details here

Only recently German bishops were crowing about a new self study posing as proper research, whose methodology sounded frighteningly similar to the seriously flawed and misleading John Jay study from the US. I searched fruitlessly for additional details about this German study, or even a copy of the research itself, but there was nothing to be found beyond a media release.

Know we know why.

Sticking to the successful Vatican mind games as trialled on the largely unsuspecting US public, parishoners and politicians, German bishops were clearly intending to buy and then exploit another expensive work of deception to smear and undermine victims and those telling the truth about this important issue.

Lies, Damn Lies and Catholic Church Funded Statistics Part I

John Jay study

Unfortunately the German researchers the bishops hoped to buy, the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN), were either smarter or have more professional integrity than the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Or perhaps they simply have more humanity.

After all we are talking about prostituting their ability and expertise to protect dangerous, sanctimonious criminals who consider themselves entitled to rape and sexually exploit as many defenceless children as they can get their grubby hands on. At the same time protecting the equally abhorrent criminals who enable and coverup these crimes.

It is entirely possible that bishops misled both the John Jay College and the KFN about their intentions for the work they were commissioning. Catholic bishops find it almost impossible to speak directly or clearly, or to be honest about what they are really up to. They cannot be up front on any topic, far less one as threatening to what is most dear to them – their own careers, and the power, wealth and influence of the institutional church – as the child rape epidemic they can no longer hide.

Avoiding nasty details, sticking to inspiring sounding cliches which are the opposite of reality, impenetrable vagueness, circular reasoning, euphemisms and mental reservation are all so ingrained that most bishops would struggle to communicate clearly if their life depended upon it.

Their stock in trade is saying a lot, while conveying little, and committing to nothing.

Except when blaming others or listing where others have gone wrong and how everything will be so much better if only everyone would blindly obey instructions from the pope and bishops.

It is entirely possible that, when commissioning this work, the bishops claimed they would be completely open and transparent. That they did not intend to hold anything back or hide any details. That they would “co-operate fully”, a favourite claim. And that they were truly interested in finding out the truth and would not try to manipulate or edit the final report to produce a desired result.

If they did claim any of these things, and they have made these claims so often in relation to law enforcement, judicial inquiries, and court proceedings, then, as has happened consistently in all those situations, they lied.

But inevitably, whether misled, naive, or somewhat complicit, at some stage the researchers, both in the US and Germany, would have realised just how little the bishops meant any claims to reveal all details or to want truth, instead of support for their excuses and distractions.

The John Jay College produced not one but two reports based on flawed and incomplete data, which have been consistently misused as representing incidence of abuse. That misrepresentation has been allowed to spread widely, uncorrected, leading the more outrageous apologists, and even bishops, to claim that catholic churches are the safest places around for children. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The second report, based on the same data as the first report, took full flight into cloud cuckoo land. It blamed the Woodstock generation for a sudden flowering of abuse, despite the fact child rape has actually been rampant in the catholic church for two millennia. This report also claimed there is no discernible difference between abuser priests and non abuser priests, despite the significant and deliberate underreporting of known abuse by bishops trying to coverup the problem. There was no difference between abuser and non abuser populations because so many abusers were included in the reportedly non abuser population. The second report also arbitrarily diverged from the official, widely used definition of paedophilia, lowering the age range significantly in order to claim the majority of priests were not in fact paedophiles. And perhaps the most dangerous fiction of all was that the abuse is all in the past, based on a tapering off of reports in recent years. This claim directly contradicts the original report, which noted that only a minority of abuse is reported within a short time frame, and the majority of victims take decades to report, making it impossible to draw reliable conclusions about current abuse rates at this time.

Clearly the German bishops have finally revealed enough of their deception and their dangerously evil intentions that the German researchers have decided they cannot be a party to the report the bishops wish to buy.

It is common practice for research to be commissioned by commercial interests specifically in order to mislead. To give them an advantage against competing messages. Bias, in all its forms, can be used to frame questions that deliver required responses, and data can be carefully selected to exclude information that does not meet the client’s needs. Biased research can usually be easily spotted based on its methodology. But we must assume the bishops went further than just bias.

That they wanted KFN to put the appearance of truth on lies.

Dangerous lies.

Lies that subvert efforts to improve child protection. Lies that keep child rapists out of jail and free to re-offend.

It seems that the researchers at KFN, unlike those at John Jay College, are not prepared to prostitute themselves for the church’s thirty pieces of silver.

Not when children’s safety is at stake.

I sincerely hope Australia’s Royal Commissioners, when appointed, read about this sorry episode.

So they can know what they are up against in the search for the truth of this issue.

Fire’s Too Good for These Devils

As much of Australia prepares to face catastrophic bush fire conditions today, I hope everyone is safe from fires and comes through unscathed.

That even includes the church’s carefully protected child rapists and those who sacrifice additional children to cover up their crimes.

Fire is too good for these devils.

I want them to make it to the Royal Commission and to face the music, and their own responsibility, for their, until now, hidden actions.

I also hope the imminent announcement of the terms of reference for the Royal Commission and the all important names of the Commissioners are not announced today.

Because if they are announced on a day when everyone is so preoccupied, and many are still on summer holidays, it can only be bad news.

It can only mean there is something in the announcement that needs to be buried under other issues on a busy news day.

An announcement today will mean those who benefit from the coverup have managed to subvert the search for truth before it even begins.

Stay extra safe today everyone. And if possible on such a scorcher, stay cool as well.

VV

Smokescreen Council Working for Deceitful Church Officials, Not Representing Victims

The CEO of the Council Which Should Not Exist, Francis Sullivan, is following in the footsteps of church officials by claiming, without basis, to speak for victims of the serial child sex offenders enabled and protected by his church.

This week’s comments include a stated desire to be “an independent voice for victims and their families, not an apologist for the church”.

Unfortunately the best place to be an independent voice for victims and their families is most definitely not at the head of a Deception and Denial Council whose job is to deliver church apologist messages, whilst appearing not to be a church apologist body.

And the best person to give voice to the church’s neglected victims and their families is most definitely not a man who has long supported Vatican power politics through implementing the papal policy to refuse lifesaving health care options to those in need.

Not only is his claim diametrically opposed to the real role of the Council for Making the Church Look More Like Reasonable Ordinary People and Less Like a Bunch of Entitled Criminals in Vestments, he also has absolutely no qualifications for speaking on behalf of victims.

None whatsoever.

Has he ever met with victims? Any at all?

More importantly, has he ever listened to them?

There are thousands of us, so before saying anything, Sullivan should plan to speak to dozens at least.

But hold on, if he were to do that, isn’t that the Smoke and Mirrors Council taking over the role of the Royal Commission?

Yet again.

Which leaves us with the role of victims’ representative not being his job or any of his business, very likely getting in the way of the legal, officially mandated Royal Commission, and a self appointed position for which he is supremely inappropriate.

Victims want actual victims or their families, not those following the church’s instructions, to be our representatives.

And we find Sullivan’s presumption, his bias, his ignorance of the issues, and his sneaky misrepresentation of his intentions offensive in the extreme.

But I’m sure, like Big George Pell or Denis Hartless or any other Vatican flunkey, Sullivan sees no particular need to hear from or understand victims in order to deliver Vatican spin supposedly on our behalf. Talking over the top of our attempts to be heard while pretending to represent us.

After all, consideration for the feelings of victims has never stopped any other of Rome’s representatives from putting their noxious words in our mouths while silencing our struggle to be heard, has it?

Our response to Sullivan?

You do not and never will represent us.

You are an oppressor of victims trying to silence us and replace our voices and our truth with Vatican lies.

Disband your offensive Council.

We don’t want you.

And we don’t want your prayers.

We want church officials to hand over their secret files.

And for whistleblowers to be encouraged to tell the truth.

Stay safe everyone.

VV

Papists protect child rapists

Papists protect rapists 

by Voiceless Victim

Papists protect their child rapists
but won’t protect kids – like me.

Papists pretend. What rapists?
Who cares what those lies do to me.

Papists revere holy rapists
but won’t even listen to me

Papists stand up for their rapists
the one they attack is me.

Papists still hide their child rapists
so no-one can ever see me.

Papists tell lies for their rapists
to drown out the truth from me.

Papists are good mates with rapists
and brag about silencing me.

Papists buy lawyers for rapists
use loopholes to keep them scot free.

Papists speak up for priest rapists
when I speak, watch ‘em sue me.

Papists sure value their rapists
no-one’s more worthless than me.

Power obsessed papists choose rapists.
The price of their power is me.

Untruth, Injustice and Denial of Healing Council

One month after the announcement by the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, of a national Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in religious and other institutions, the Catholic Church in Australia announced its own body.

The so-called Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

Sounds like it will achieve some good, doesn’t it?

Sounds like something new is being done, something has changed, actions are being taken, and those pre-historic attitudes and processes are finally being overhauled.

And with a Chairman and CEO who are not actually catholic officials, could it be that child protection will finally take priority over institution and predator protection?

Not as such.

We have seen such exercises before.

After the Boston Globe brought the issue of widespread child sexual abuse by catholic religious in the US to worldwide attention in 2002, the US Catholic Bishops Conference introduced diocesan Review Boards, comprising both religious and prominent lay people, to oversee the management of child sex abuse cases.

But ten years later, we have had a chance to see how these Review Boards really function.

The US Review Boards are not able to do their job, at least not their publicly announced job, because some cases are kept from them, and those cases they are allowed to review often feature misleading or missing information. And bishops are under no obligation whatsoever to implement any recommendations from Review Boards.

The Chairperson of the Philadelphia Board commented that church officials failed “miserably at being open and transparent”.

The result?

Known offenders are still being kept in ministry, evidence is still being hidden from law enforcement, children are still being endangered and still being abused, and victims are still being denied assistance and reabused when they attempt to recover.

This outcome has been demonstrated again and again by official investigations, by civil court cases and by the occasional criminal case which manages to survive the almost insurmountable hurdle of predator friendly statutes of limitations laws.

So, if Review Boards are not actually delivering truth, justice or healing, or even child protection, or co-operation with law enforcement,what is their real purpose?

To make it look like something has changed, and to take the heat off the bishops.

The prominent people filling Review Board seats are lending their reputations to US bishops, so that the bishops can be seen to have outside scrutiny, while keeping the Review Boards in the dark as to what is really going on.

Just like this new Council in Australia will borrow the reputations of the Chairman, Barry O’Keefe and the CEO, Francis Sullivan, and any other lay appointees, to appear as if Australian catholic bishops are handing over control and management of this issue to independent parties.

Except there is already an independent party which has been officially appointed to manage this issue, and which has the legal power to control it.

It’s called a Royal Commission.

It is no accident that this smoke and mirrors stunt has been pulled prior to the appointment of any Commissioners, and before the Royal Commission’s Terms of Reference are announced.

Church officials have manipulated the timing gap between the announcement of the Royal Commission and the appointment of Commissioners, so that this Council of Spin is a pre-existing body to the operation of the Royal Commission, and so there are no Commissioners in a position to respond to the formation of the Council. Nobody is yet officially appointed to the job of the Royal Commission’s investigation. Nobody can officially dismiss the catholic church’s opportunistic and arrogant body right from the start, with the message that it is not needed and serves no purpose except to obscure the truth and obstruct the lawful operation of the Royal Commission.

If there is any genuine public need for this Council, at all, why only catholics?

If there is any genuine role for the Council to perform, surely every institution under scrutiny by the Royal Commission will require its own Truth, Justice and Healing Council?

Or is this yet another example of special treatment for the catholic church?

Another special exception which puts catholic church officials above the laws which apply to every other citizen?

Another loophole which facilitates the continuation and coverup of the widespread and systemic rape of defenceless children and other vulnerable populations?

Another betrayal by those who demand moral authority and respect they in no way deserve?

Clearly it is hoped this most deceptive Council will centralise and sanitise comments about evidence provided to the Royal Commission by victims, their families and supporters, police, lawyers, psychologists, and whistleblowers.

In this way, the church can keep the lid on those increasingly embarrassing incidents where George Pell and other church officials speak to the media without first being coached on what to say in order to appear to think and respond appropriately. They clearly need to put a stop to church officials unconsciously letting slip their true jaw droppingly callous and self serving attitudes towards the routine enabling and coverup of child sexual exploitation by serial predators. Most revealing of all from such admissions is the understanding that though these entitled medieval princes now realise they must pretend it is not acceptable to rape children, they don’t really get why it is so bad. At all.

Someone has finally got the message through to the bishops conference and the religious leaders conference, that they can no longer get away with such unintentionally revealing comments. Thanks to investigative media and victims speaking out, today people are paying attention to what they actually say, instead of mindlessly swallowing their excuses. And those people can put two and two together.

By comparison, lay people do not live in the alternate reality and moral vacuum of catholic religious life, where the only good is what is good for the church, and for those who benefit most from her power and wealth.

Lay people speaking for the church removes the problem of an out of touch hierarchy, each of whom may face charges over the coverup of child rape if our justice system is ever allowed to operate transparently, simultaneously shooting themselves in the foot, shoving both feet in their mouth and handing out inadvertent admissions of knowledge of and possibly also complicity in these crimes.

Public statements by those appointed to this Coverup Council demonstrate the intention to remove church officials as far as possible from the negative PR that will be flowing their way as the evidence is finally, publicly revealed. The Council is not guilty of these crimes, having only just been appointed, but will provide a shield between the previously hidden actions of the bishops, and bishops facing responsibility for those actions.

Speak to the hand, to the Council, not to the bishops themselves.

If the smokescreen Council miraculously delivers, as if from god above, some fraction of the evidence held by bishops that they are prepared to finally hand over, the link between this damning evidence and the bishops will be obscured, or even, hopefully, broken. As will the link between these crimes and the orders from the Vatican which threatened dire punishment for those who publicly revealed such crimes, but understanding and forgiveness for those who committed them. And continued to commit them.

But apart from delivering evidence to the Royal Commission, a job which can only be performed by the church officials themselves and requires no third party, what will this Council actually do?

To hear Francis Sullivan and Barry O’Keefe talk, the Council will do the job of the Royal Commission.

They say they are going to deliver justice to victims.

Really?

How?

And what will the Commissioners say, when they are appointed, about the existence of a supposedly independent body, directed and funded by those whose interests it exists to serve, which wants to do their job for them?

Will they say, “Oh great, thanks guys, that’s really sweet, we’ll just take it easy for a while until you come up with some recommendations”?

We better hope not.

If this Royal Commission is anything other than a sham, the new Commissioners, when appointed, will thank the Council very kindly for their efforts and instruct them firmly to head on home and leave the job to the professionals.

Happy holidays and stay safe everyone.

VV