November 17, 2024

High Court ruling that Catholic Church not 'vicariously liable' for priest's abuse sparks calls for law reform

By Elizabeth Byrne

ABC News:   17.11.2024

Lawyers and advocates say they will take up the issue with all states and territories.

...

Vicarious liability has long been a thorny issue in the High Court.

As this week's judgement noted, it "has had a tortured history" which has included declining to extend the law of vicarious liability beyond employees despite examples overseas.

The majority judgement suggested it was a matter not for it, but rather one that should be placed "squarely in the hands of legislatures".

And that was exactly where Judy Courtin said she was headed as she put every attorney-general on notice this week.

Dr Morrison said after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the research showed people took about 20 years to come forward.

He said that meant there were a large number of people who benefited from the lifting of the time limitations on cases, only to be denied their ability to make a claim on an organisation which says it does not employ its clergy.

"That seems to me to be an unacceptable state of affairs, and one that calls for legislation and urgent legislation to retrospectively overturn that problem," Dr Morrison said.

Andrew Morrison said the ruling could create troubling outcomes. And it will be in the states and territories where that lobbying will have to be done. (Read more)

November 15, 2024

the vile QC who disgraced the church

By Geoffrey Robertson, QC

The Age 15.11. 2024

The Church of England has been rocked to its foundations by a sadomasochistic barrister. The archbishop of Canterbury has resigned for failing to blow the whistle, and more incurious high clerics will follow. So will the reputation of Mary Whitehouse, feted by our evangelicals for her attacks on homosexuals: she brought John Smyth, QC, to Australia in 1984 to expound their beliefs in “muscular Christianity”. That was the name they gave to his perverted beating of schoolboys, committed and covered up with the help of his legal distinction. (Read more.   Warning: Graphic and distressing content.)

Geoffrey Robertson, QC, is author of Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle For Global Justice, published this month.

November 17, 2024 

Gillard urges states to act after ‘deeply concerning’ ruling that Catholic Church is not liable in abuse case

ByTony Wright 

The Age 17.11.2024 

Former prime minister Julia Gillard has called on Australia’s attorneys-general to urgently consider how to deliver justice to survivors of child abuse after the High Court ruled that a Catholic diocese was not liable for the historical sexual abuse of a young boy in Victoria.

Gillard, who in 2012 established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, said she was “deeply concerned” about the High Court ruling.

The royal commission – widely considered among the most important decisions of Gillard’s period as prime minister from 2010 to 2013 – lifted the lid on decades of child sexual abuse that had occurred in Australian institutions.

Gillard... made it clear yesterday that she was taken aback by the High Court’s decision.

“I am deeply concerned about the implications of this High Court ruling, and I believe attorneys-general must urgently consider how best to ensure survivors can attain justice,” she said.

November 14, 2024

‘Free pass for sexually abusive clerics’: Catholic Church not liable, High Court rules

The Age 13.11.2024

The Guardian 13.11.2024

Archbishop of Canterbury resigns ‘in sorrow’ over handling of abuse scandal

The Age 13.11.2024

Comments:   La Croix International

The resignation of the head of the Anglican Church, after a report exposed the Church of England's mishandling of a case involving a layman who committed sexual assaults against children, is significant for religious leaders, as followers

 ...

Welby’s resignation also serves as a strong and clear message to leaders of institutions and public figures worldwide. This is particularly significant for religious leaders, whose followers often look to them for moral guidance to distinguish right from wrong. This moral authority comes with a responsibility: the ability to acknowledge one’s mistakes and step down when necessary.

In light of the tragedies of sexual abuse that so frequently affect their institutions, believers expect unwavering exemplarity from their leaders. They owe this not only to the respect for their institution and faith in God but also to the victims.

Loup Besmond de Senneville is deputy editor-in-chief of La Croix and former Vatican correspondent.

UPDATE 2024

Apologies for failing to keep lookout4children.com up to date over the years. Recently it has been promoted as a useful resource so we will endeavour to bring it more or less up to date. This week (mid November 2024)  provides news of two harrowing reports on Catholic and Anglican churches. Only the brave and the desperate will dare to reflect on these; to compare the one with the other might not be a good idea. Keep on the lookout for comments and reactions.

Update 2021

The Final Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was delivered to the Governor-General of Australia, and tabled in the Australian Parliament, on 15 December 2017. In these seven years much has been done in terms of setting up a regime of surveilance to keeep our children safe. 

It is sobering to observe that the sexual abuse and assault pandemic is by no means over. It even appears to be getting worse as more egregious incidents make headlines and long-running cases finally make it to court.

Our task of raising awareness - keeping it a live issue in Healesville - is as important as ever. In fact more important, because people are now used to hearing about children being abused, women being assaulted, an epidemic of domestic violence that includes one woman murdered by her partner every week of the year. To preserve our sanity we sometimes feel we have to step back, talking about something else while the latest report comes on the news, something we don't want to  hear. We're sick of it. 

But every year a new group of children start out on their dangerous journey. Our town has to make sure that every one of them travels safely and reaches maturity without being got at.  We cannot afford to let our attention wander from their safety. Lookout! Be on the alert in every situation. Actively keep an eye on how people  are behaving. Make your own critical judgement about what you see: is it  normal, healthy, unusual, over-familiar, improper, suspect, dangerous? And don't just look away! Think about it. Talk about it. See if something needs to be said or done.

A steering committee under the leadership of John Barrett has outlined a program for the year. To get a view of the wider picture we will invite speakers from other groups active in Melbourne.  Other meetings will focus on our town, parish and school, our own further education in the issue and what our response to victims should be.

Australian of the Year, Grace Tame's address to the National Press Club could well be our charter. She set out three key ways how we can support victims and bring sexual abuse to an end. Some quotes:

It is so important to listen to survivors' stories and while they are disturbing to hear the reality of what goes on behind closed doors is more so. And the more detail we omit through fear of disturbance the more we soften these crimes, the more we shield perpetrators from the shame that is resultantly misdirected to their target.

When we share we heal, reconnect and grow with that individual and as a united  strengthened collective. History, lived experience unsanitised and unedited, is our greatest learning resource. 

There is the potential to do so much more... There are three key areas to learn:

1. How we invite, accept and listen to the conversation of CSA survivors. It all starts with conversation. 

2. What we do to expand our understanding of this heinous crime, in particular the grooming process, through both formal and informal education.

3. How we provide a consistent national framework that supports victims and their loved ones not just in their recovery but also to give them power and deter predators from action.

So what is it that we must do? First and foremost let's keep talking about it. It's that simple. Let's start by opening up. It's up to us as a community, as a country, to create a space, a national movement where survivors feel supported and free to share their truth.

Let's drive a paradigm shift of shame away from those who have been abused and onto abusers' behaviour.

Let's share the platform to remind survivors that their individual voice matters among the collective. Every story is endowed with unique catalytic educative potential  that can only be told by its subject.

Let us genuinely listen, actively and without judgement and without advice to demonstrate empathy and reinsure that it is and never was our fault. Such is the success of predators in instill fear and self-doubts in the minds of their targets. Moreso than they are masters of destroying our trust in others, perpetrators are masters of destroying our trust in our own judgement, in ourselves. Such is the power of shame. A power though that is no match for the power of love.

(Grace Tame at National Press Club, March 3, 2021. Listen on youtube:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJmwOTfjn9U ) 

"In making Grace Tame Australian of the Year, our leaders have unleashed the power of truth."