The unbearable lightness of seeing

Barry Zwartz
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
November 16, 2013

Georgie Crozier thought she was mentally ready to investigate child sexual abuse in the churches. As a nurse and midwife, she had coped with cases of rape and incest, and heard heart-wrenching stories. But nothing could prepare her for the sheer horror or scale of what happened to thousands of young Victorians in orphanages, schools and church settings over decades.

As chairwoman of the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sexual abuse, she hid her emotions behind a mask of formality through the long months of testimony from victims, advocates, experts and religious leaders. Just occasionally her irritation at some witnesses' prevarication slipped out.

''It's very difficult seeing people you know sitting across the table from you, men showing photos of themselves as boys,'' she says. ''But I don't think it was nearly as difficult as it was for them coming before us, and that kept me focused: this is so important for so many people - we just have to get this right.''

The inquiry's 750-page report, tabled on Wednesday, made 15 recommendations across five areas: criminal law, making the church legally accountable, setting up an independent but church-funded tribunal to investigate claims and determine compensation, and better prevention and monitoring.

It particularly savaged the Catholic Church, but - as Andrea Coote noted in her speech to Parliament - this was because it was the focus of the vast majority of testimony. Also, as the report makes clear, the members were often unimpressed by the testimony of Catholic leaders. Although the consistent testimony of the church was that the problems were largely fixed and those to blame were all previous leaders, the report found that the current leadership had minimised and trivialised the problem, kept the community in ignorance, and saw child sexual abuse as a ''short-term embarrassment''.

They did not see the problems as raising any questions about the church's own culture and had developed ''a sliding morality''. The report notably exempted Geelong priest Kevin Dillon, who has worked with dozens of victims. The inquiry also led to 135 new police investigations into child sexual abuse, most from submissions and because Taskforce Sano attached to the inquiry spoke to victims after they testified.

read full article at the Sydney Morning Herald