Insight into culture of dark period

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s final hearing into the Australian Catholic Church is examining how systemic institutional factors, including structure, governance and culture prevailed over the safety of children and allowed paedophile clergy to flourish for decades.

On Monday the extent of child sexual abuse in the Australian Catholic Church was laid bare.  World first data showing between 1980 and 2015, 4,444 people alleged incidents of child sexual abuse relating to 93 Catholic Church authorities.

Almost one in ten priests in the Diocese of Ballarat had allegations of child sexual abuse levelled against them between 1950 and 2010, the inquiry heard.

The inquiry also heard the Vatican declined to provide requested documents about Australian priests to the royal commission.

Doctor Thomas Doyle, a United States canon lawyer and expert in areas of sexual abuse by clergy gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Tuesday.  

Dr Thomas said the church still failed comprehend the depth of the “spiritual damage” done to victims, their families and communities. 

The whistleblower priest who was one of the first to report allegations of sexual abuse to the Vatican in the 1980s said he was punished for speaking out and senior Catholic clerics including Pope John Paul II failed to act on allegations of child sexual abuse. 

The Dominican priest accused the Catholic Church of committing the “soul murder” of abuse victims, with some survivors never recovering from the trauma. 

“Sometimes those murdered souls stay dead,” Dr Doyle said.

"I have never seen anything coming out of the Holy See dealing with the spiritual damage. All I've seen is 'Get them to go back to church', which is nuts."

The hearing also examined the role of confession, mandatory celibacy and the Catholic Church’s “pontifical secret” rule, which the inquiry heard, still prevents bishops from disclosing child sexual abuse allegations in some states. 

The inquiry heard Catholic Church's canon law may have been deliberately misused to excuse and cover up child sexual abuse.

A member of the Vatican's child protection body Baroness Sheila Hollins said she knew no evidence of canon law being used as a reason for the occurrence of abuse.

Baroness Hollins said in no canon does it require a member of the church to 'cover up' a canonical offence in order to protect the reputation of the church.

However, she said church laws may have been deliberately misused to excuse inexcusable behaviour, and to “cover up known wrongdoing."

Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge told the sex abuse inquiry on Wednesday the church must put a "culture of concealment" behind it.

He said there was understanding among Australian Catholic bishops it could not be 'business as usual' after the royal commission and major cultural changes were necessary. 

Archbishop Coleridge said he does not know how many priests break their vows of celibacy, and does not think it is appropriate to question them. 

The inquiry heard up to 50 per cent of clergy might be breaking their vows at any one time.

 He said he had never had a sense of "being shackled" by his vow of celibacy but could not speak for others.

The inquiry heard a Vatican panel dealing with a backlog of child abuse claims in the Catholic church internationally was taking up to three years to hand down findings about alleged perpetrators. 

A Ballarat clergy sexual abuse survivor says the Catholic Church still fails to comprehend the depth of damage it has caused to victims. 

Paul Levey was sexually abused daily while living with notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale at a presbytery in Mortlake in 1982 at the age of 14.

Mr Levey says even now, the Catholic Church is failing victims across Victoria, whose lives were irreparably shattered by the pain of their abuse.

He started a men’s survivor group in his hometown of Sunbury for men who were sexually abused by Catholic Clergy outside of the Diocese of Ballarat. 

For many of the men, their trauma traced back to former priests and Salesian brothers involved in historic abuses at Rupertswood.  

Victims abused by Ballarat clergy can access financial support for vital services like counselling from the diocese.  

But Mr Levey said victims abused outside of Ballarat “hit a brick wall” trying to get financial support from the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and the Salesians of Don Bosco for ongoing counselling.

“These guys have been to hell and back,” he said. “If they don’t get the help they need when they reach out they’ll crawl back in their shell.

“Ballarat has a unique model which has been a great success but there are people struggling in Bendigo, Sunbury..and all over. It shouldn’t matter where you were abused, you should get the same support.” 

Mr Levey is at the royal commission representing his terminally ill friend, Russell Clark, who was sexually abused by members of the Salesian order. 

He plans on questioning Salesians of Don Bosco provincial Father Greg Chambers about the religious order’s failure to support victims at next week’s hearing. 

• To contact CASA, located on the corner of Vale and Edwards streets, Sebastopol, call 5320 3933 or free call 24 hours 1800 806 292. Lifeline can be accessed on 13 11 14.