Australian Church Related Sexual Abuse Support

[simonecuttlefish]

From the website
Broken Rights Australia
(http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/)http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/

http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/graphics/archbishop_pell_with_ridsdale.jpeg
In the photo, Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale (left) walks to court, accompanied by his support person (Bishop George Pell, then an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne), when Father Ridsdale was pleading guilty to his first batch of criminal charges in May 1993.

But no bishop accompanied the victims, who felt deserted by the church hierarchy. Therefore, Broken Rites quickly became Australia's main support group for church-abuse victims.

Spend some time at that site. It's worth a good read.

[bruce1937]

Well that was an eye opener, like most people I had heard of the Catholic priesthoods penchant for boys, but the shear number of cases reported here is far greater than I imagined, and is quite possibly only the tip of the iceberg.

[simonecuttlefish]

Well that was an eye opener, like most people I had heard of the Catholic priesthoods penchant for boys, but the shear number of cases reported here is far greater than I imagined, and is quite possibly only the tip of the iceberg.

I hear you. Imagine all the adult people you know, men and women. Ask yourself if they had all been sexually abused by someone in an authority position, how many of them would want it made public. How many would just bring up in conversation at the pub, or at a dinner party, or at a restaurant;

"Ohh that's right, I used to suck off the priest for a few years. That really fucked me up you know. All those threats sure didn't help me either. I really don't mind it being in all the papers, or everyone I know finding out about it."

Perhaps the term 'tip of the iceberg' may not adequately describe it.