Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s top Catholic, went before an abuse inquiry to answer some questions, can you possibly guess why? He was speaking on the final day of the an inquiry that has already heard that about 620 children were criminally abused by Catholic clergy from the 1930s onwards. Victims, including children as young as seven or eight who were raped by priests, have told of their experiences at the hearing, which comes ahead of a national royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse.
David Marr covers Pell’s testimony quite well in the Guardian today, but to also get a feel for the true anger out there, you can tune into the twitter feed #AbuseInquiry.
Here are a few gems from it …
(link) Pell complains “25 years of press hostility towards the church” Seems like a small price to pay for 2000 years of hypocrisy
The press hostile! … gosh I wonder why? It can’t in any way be related to the rape and abuse of young children and a determined effort to cover it all up, nope, nothing at all to do with that.
(link) Pell attempted to position the Catholic Church as the victim saying “Some of the victims weren’t entirely blameless.”
..and of course he plays the victim blaming card, (Rolls eyes) Yes of course, a grown adult put in a position of responsibility was not entirely to blame, when faced with such “tempting” young kids it was obviously not his fault. Oh wait, the fact the an adult is sexually attracted to young kids and actually finds them a temptation is in itself a fracking perversion and truly abhorrent state of affairs never dawned upon his rather religiously addled collection neurons that apparently masquerade under rather false pretences as a brain.
(link) The lack of genuine humility – a fundamental hallmark of remorse – leaves Pell’s apology empty http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/-2n7k8.html …
Indeed yes, he appears to be determined to say how sorry he is, but it strikes me that the only thing he is actually sorry about is that they got caught, there appears to be a complete lack of basic human empathy for those that have been abused, and a far greater interest in simply gagging them and covering it all up. That in itself reveals a great deal regarding the complete and utter moral bankruptcy of the entire institution, that specifically directed its bishops to do exactly this or else face excommunication.
There is indeed now a rising tide of utter contempt out there, as can be seen from tweets like these …
(link) 1600 years & the catholic church just starting to realise they are not above the law http://m.theage.com.au/national/pell-makes-admissions-20130527-2n7l5.html …
(link) Let it not be forgotten that celibacy is a nasty form of sexual perversion. #Pell #Catholic #atheism #abuseinquiry
(link) Information on Father Pickering has been available since 1993. That’s 20 years of inaction on this! #abuseinquiry
(link) Pell said they only have legal responsibilities. Now he says they have a moral responsibility. I think his memory is failing. #abuseinquiry
(link) The Church put its own law ahead of the law of Australia. Imagine if any other group did that to protect child abusers #abc730 #abuseinquiry
(link) Of course Pell will soon forgive predecessors for their transgressions and magically all will be as usual #abuseinquiry @suzipeep
(link) You may see Tweets quoting #Pell saying “Some of the victims weren’t entirely blameless” This has proven 2 b incorrect, pls RT #abuseinquiry
(link) Cardinal Pell, neither you nor the Catholic Church are the victims here. You need to learn this. #abuseinquiry
If the membership of any other entity, a corporation, a club or similar, had been caught abusing kids and also conspired to cover it all up, it would have been disbanded long ago. They more or less get a free pass, not only because because this is religion, but also because we allow them to do so. Millions still apparently think that that their claim to be the representative of a god, and that they hold the high moral ground, are viable claims – yet the evidence before us reveals that none of this is factual.
Excuses such as “it was only a few bad priests”, might indeed pacify some, but when faced with such outrageous claims that attempt to once again sweep in all away, we should not forget that it was also a conspiracy to protect the abusers – this is not just about abuse, it was also about a conspiracy to silence and gag the abused through intimidation and to cover it all up.