Showing posts with label Priests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Priests. Show all posts

Monday, 14 September 2015

Melbourne Response discouraged some victims from going to police

Catholic Church's Melbourne Response discouraged some victims from going to police, inquiry finds

The process used by the Catholic Church in Melbourne to handle abuse claims discouraged victims from going to the police in some instances, the royal commission into child abuse has found.

In 1996 then archbishop George Pell introduced the Melbourne Response, as the church's process to deal with people sexually abused by priests and others within the Archdiocese.

It allowed anyone making allegations of abuse to have what the church called an "independent commissioner" to investigate their claims and make findings.

 

Catholic Church castrates boys



Evidence of the castrations has emerged amid controversy that it was not included in the findings of an official investigation into sexual abuse within the church last year.
The NRC Handelsblad newspaper identified Henk Heithuis who was castrated in 1956, while a minor, after reporting priests to the police for abusing him in a Catholic boarding home.
Joep Dohmen, the investigative journalist who uncovered the Heithuis case, also found evidence of at least nine other castrations.

"These cases are anonymous and can no longer be traced," he said. "There will be many more. But the question is whether those boys, now old men, will want to tell their story."

Royal Commission findings into The Melbourne Response of the Catholic Church

Archbishop Little wrote, ‘The fact that he is still a priest incardinated in the Archdiocese of Melbourne is very difficult for me to explain to the enemies of the Church, and to the general public’. http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/getattachment/232af799-8292-4709-a392-5d8bc7d3e77c/Report-of-Case-Study-No-16