Monthly Archives: November 2012

Good news for a change!!! :)

Falcons – not your average CBD residents

Date November 20, 2012 – 5:07PM

Stephen Cauchi and Antoni Partington

Falcons – not your average CBD residents

The built-up environs of Melbourne’s CBD are hardly ideal for wildlife, but for a family of falcons it’s home sweet home.

The built-up environs of Melbourne’s CBD are hardly ideal for wildlife, but for one pair of peregrine falcons – the world’s fastest animal – it is home sweet home.

Unlike most birds, peregrine falcons don’t build stick nests. Instead they carve out scrape nests, usually on a high cliff or on the window ledges of tall buildings.

On the 33rd floor of 367 Collins Street, there have been five pairs of falcons since 1991. The most recent pair became proud parents four weeks ago when three nestlings hatched.

As their parents swooped outside, nestlings are brought inside to be tagged with a coloured metal band on each leg.

As their parents swoop outside, nestlings are brought inside to be tagged with a coloured metal band on each leg. Photo: Antoni Partington

Yesterday, Victorian Peregrine Project Manager Victor Hurley “banded” the nestlings. As their parents swooped outside, the nestlings were brought inside the building to be tagged with a coloured metal band on each leg.

“We can read these (the bands) on a telescope from 250 metres away,” said Mr Hurley.

“We can monitor where they go, how long they live for, how many young they’re having, what sort of nest sites they’re using, that sort of thing,” said Mr Hurley.

Unfortunately, it will also be used to identify many of them when they die.

“Here, 80 per cent of the young die within the first six months of leaving the nest,” he said. “They hit windows, hit cars, hit wires, drown in rooftop swimming pools, get inside a building and starve to death on the weekend,” he said. “And they’re trapped, shot and poisoned illegally by people who race pigeons. You name it, things are happening to them.”

Consequently, said Mr Hurley, in Victoria there’s only about 40 to 50 band-wearing adults.

Collins Street is one of 180 sites in Victoria and is one of the more productive sites, with 36 nestlings over 22 years. There’s even a closed-circuit TV relaying footage of the nest to a screen in the 367 Collins foyer.

Besides being fast – they can reach 300 km/h in a swoop – peregrine falcons are predators, feeding on other birds. Melbourne’s green spaces, said Mr Hurley, are rich with quail, sparrows, starlings, pigeons, and other tasty treats. Albert Park Lake and the Altona grasslands are particularly popular feeding spots.

Consequently, the Collins Street nest looks set to remain inhabited. “The regular return of these birds to the CBD is a good sign of Melbourne’s liveability for our birdlife,” he said.

Global Warming IS Real!

Leave a reply

And the only person who did not believe in Global Warming was,…, YES! Tony Blabbott!!! The leader of the opposition in Australia!
————————————————–

Degrees of devastation: major report warns of drastically hotter planet

Date November 19, 2012 – 12:33PM

Tom Arup

World Bank warns of climate change ‘disaster’

Unless action is taken now, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim warns, the planet faces disastrous consequences. (Supplied vision)

The World Bank has warned the planet is on track to warm by four degrees Celsius this century – causing increasingly extreme heat waves, lower crop yields and rising sea levels – unless significant action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In a major report released ahead of the year-end United Nations climate summit in Qatar, the bank says changes associated with four degrees of warming would have dramatic and devastating effects on all parts of the world, including Australia, but that the poor would be most vulnerable.

Scientists say global warming must be kept within two degrees of pre-industrial temperatures to give the world the best chance of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.

'I still find that much of what is attributed to climate change is just plain wrong.'

Climate change is coming to a planet near you.

The report – a snapshot of the most recent climate science prepared for the bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics – says global mean warming is now about 0.8 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

It says that if current promises by nations to curb emissions are met then it is most likely there will be more than three degrees warming. However, under that scenario it warns there is also a 20 per cent likelihood that four degrees of warming will occur by 2100.

If current promises are not met, then the world is “plausibly” on a path to warm by four degrees this century, possibly as early as 2060, the bank says.

The report, titled Turn Down the Heat, says if the world experiences four degrees of warming it would:

* See a 150 per cent increase in ocean acidity, leading to the extinction of some sensitive coral reef ecosystems.

* Result in sea-level rise of 0.5 to 1 metres by 2100, with more in following centuries, affecting low-lying islands and coastal communities.

* Lead to more extreme heatwaves, reduced run-off into major rivers and a significant decline in biodiversity, all risking the support systems of humans.

The report says the full impact on human development of a four-degree-hotter world is unknown, making it is unclear whether humanity would be able to adapt.

“A 4°C world is likely to be one in which communities, cities and countries would experience severe disruptions, damage, and dislocation, with many of these risks spread unequally,” the report says.

“It is likely that the poor will suffer most and the global community could become more fractured, and unequal than today.”

World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim said: “A four-degree-warmer world can, and must be avoided – we need to hold warming below two degrees.”

“Lack of action on climate change threatens to make the world our children inherit a completely different world than we are living in today. Climate change is one of the single biggest challenges facing development, and we need to assume the moral responsibility to take action on behalf of future generations, especially the poorest.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “This new report from the World Bank reminds us that climate change is happening – now. The evidence is clear. No country is immune. If we mobilise today, we can make a difference tomorrow.”

The World Bank is the second major international body this month to raise concerns about the rate of greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere.

The International Energy Agency last week warned in its latest World Energy Outlook that no more than a third of the world’s proven fossil fuel reserves can be consumed to 2050, without carbon capture and storage technology, if the two degrees target is to be met.

The warnings come as nations meet in Doha, Qatar next week for the next major round of international climate change negotiations.

And Cardinal Pell wanted FACTS???

Leave a reply

Well, it seems, all he has to do, is read some of his own church’s files!

What an imbecile! And what’s worse, is his desire, to make all these allegations go away!!! He has asked for facts, and it appears, that the church he represents, has even more facts, at its disposal, than have already been published!!!

Cardinal Pell, all you have done, is subject the church to more ridicule, than it has already experienced! And as someone completely outside the church’s influence, thank “GOD”, it almost seems as if you are defending these destroyer’s of people’s lives! Cardinal Pell, you are a shame to your religion!
——————————————————-

Church holds sex dossiers

Date November 17, 2012: Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie

A file photograph of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, former chair of Encompass Australiasia, regarded highly for his efforts to improve the Catholic Church’s response to sex abuse. District Court documents revealing how a priest who admitted to child sexual abuse in 2002 was treated in Emcompass in 2003. The police did not learn of the offences until 2007.

THE Australian Catholic Church holds thousands of pages of documents containing the psycho-sexual profiles of dozens of clergy accused of sexually abusing children and vulnerable adults.

The profiles, often sent to bishops, were created as part of the church’s little-known 1997-2008 rehabilitation program for those it described as ”sexual boundary violators”.

It is understood none of the clergy treated under the multimillion-dollar Encompass Australasia program run from Sydney’s Wesley Private Hospital was referred to police.

Illustration: Ron Tandberg.

This was despite senior church figures being aware of serious abuse allegations – or in some cases, admissions – that led to clergy being sent for treatment.

A New South Wales police spokeswoman said although police had received some abuse information from the church, it could not find any records showing referrals out of the Encompass Australasia program.

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graeme Ashton told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry last month that church leaders in Melbourne had not reported any abuse cases to police.

Sources familiar with Encompass Australasia told Fairfax Media that offending clergy were quietly ”transitioned” out of the church, receiving generous payouts, accommodation and university education.

”There were some outrageous situations that would have been very embarrassing for the church had they become public,” a well-placed source said. ”Deals were cut. The whole operation was extremely confidential.”

NSW District Court documents show that a former Marist brother, Ross Murrin, who in 2002 admitted to church leaders that he had sexually abused eight primary school boys in the 1970s, was sent to Encompass Australasia for six months’ treatment in 2002-03.

The court heard that many of the victims turned to drugs and alcohol, with one dying of a drug overdose.

After admitting the abuse to senior church figures, Murrin was sent to Rome to work for the church as a translator. Police did not learn of his crimes until mid-2007. He was charged soon after and returned to Australia where he pleaded guilty and received an 18-month jail term.

In another case, a Sydney priest treated by Encompass Australasia after he allegedly made a young woman from an ethnic community pregnant was paid to quietly leave the church, with his accommodation and tertiary study fully funded. The young woman and her child were sent back to their home country.

The revelation of the church’s wealth of knowledge of the psycho-sexual make-up of many clergy and its failure to report abuse allegations comes after Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, this week said the church had been the victim of an exaggerated media campaign.

Cardinal Pell was speaking in response to Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement of a royal commission on the abuse of children, a decision he supports.

The Encompass Australasia program was established in 1997 and funded by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes to assess and treat male clergy for psycho-sexual disorders.

It was linked to Catholic Church Insurances Limited, which provided secretarial support and was represented on the Encompass Australasia board.

The program treated about 1100 people, including hundreds of clergy from Australia and nearby countries.

Church officials from other denominations were also treated, though they were far fewer in number. Clergy were also treated for depression and substance abuse.

Psychological reports on patients were prepared and assessments made on the likelihood of clergy reoffending. The reports were often made available to senior church leaders and the church’s lawyers.

Psychologists associated with the Encompass Australasia program have told Fairfax Media the clinical treatment provided was world-class and that the church’s 2008 decision to close it was troubling.

”It was a deluxe treatment program, highly expensive but highly effective,” one clinician said. ”It was designed to prevent reoffending and we’d make recommendations about who posed a risk to children or vulnerable adults. To my knowledge, [the Catholic Church] is the only institution that did not kick out paedophiles. It tried to help them.”

In 2005, Encompass Australasia had 160 clients in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region under continuing care.

Some clinicians, who asked not to be identified because of confidentiality agreements they had signed, have privately expressed concern over the church’s failure to report to police clergy who had admitted abuse or were accused of serious offences that led to their referral to Encompass Australia.

”There is a balance between confidentiality and a duty to warn and inform. The duty to warn overrides confidentiality,” said one clinician, who saw dozens of clergy with psycho-sexual disorders at Encompass Australasia’s Sydney clinic.

Corporate records show Encompass Australasia was de-registered in 2010 after it began winding down operations in mid-2008 because of funding problems.

High-ranking Catholics Father Brian Lucas and Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, who are under NSW police investigation over their handling of complaints about a serial child-abusing priest, were appointed to the Encompass Australasia board in July and September 2008.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who has won plaudits for his efforts to improve the Catholic Church’s response to child sex abuse, led the Encompass Australasia board between 1997 and 2005.

Bishop Robinson told Fairfax Media that Encompass Australasia’s ability to treat clergy for psycho-sexual disorders would have been greatly compromised had those attending the clinic been reported to police. ”No one would come for treatment if they thought they would be referred to the police,” he said.

Bishop Robinson, who this week described Cardinal Pell as an embarrassment over his stance on child sexual abuse, said he was surprised to hear that clergy accused of abuse had been relocated after treatment under the Encompass Australasia program.

”There should not have been any moving of priests around over the past 16 years… since the Towards Healing process was introduced,” he said.

The defunct website of Encompass Australasia describes the organisation as ”an independent company established by the Australian Catholic Church for the good of society”.

It just keeps getting worse and worse!!!

Leave a reply

I had not wanted to write any more about the church’s abuse of children.

But now, when I read, that in many cases, the parents, of abused children, have paid, to fund the defence cost of paedophile priests, both past and present, even those that have previously already been convicted in civil courts, I get angry! This merely adds insult to injury!!!

If I was ever in doubt about my convictions about the evil that is the church, each day’s news, just keeps adding new information, and substance, that my convictions are right!

Karma works though, finally,…, And that means there is hope for mankind!

People have the right to believe in what they want, as long as their belief’s do not harm anyone else!!! This is not what the church has done!!!

But do not get me wrong! I personally have nothing but contempt for religion, but I have no problem with people who for their own reasons, benefit from its existence. But it has no place in my life!
—————————————————————-

PARENTS, TAXPAYERS BANKROLLING PAYOUTS

Adam Walters, 7News Sydney Updated November 16, 2012, 6:00 pm

Parents, taxpayers bankrolling payouts

EXCLUSIVE: A new scandal is brewing for the Catholic Church with claims the victims of sexual abuse are being paid with funds provided by school fees.

Enlarge photo

Hahahahahahaha!!! I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous!!!

Leave a reply

Hahahahahahaha!!! I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous!!!.

Hahahahahahaha!!! I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous!!!

Leave a reply

Hahahahahahaha,…, And Pell, also wanted ‘FACTS’??? As if the church did not already have enough FACTS!!! He would have ALL the facts, had not his priests DESTROYED the evidence,…,

And a ‘SMEAR’??? The mind boggles! Evidence proven, along with secret compensations are a SMEAR??? Get Real Cardinal Pell!
—————————————————————

Pell blames media ‘smear’

Date November 14, 2012 Barney Zwartz

A DEFIANT Cardinal George Pell has blamed a smear campaign against the Catholic Church for public pressure that led to a royal commission into child sex abuse.

The Archbishop of Sydney said a commission into the Catholic Church was not needed, but he welcomed the broader inquiry announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Monday night as ”an opportunity to clear the air, to separate fact from fiction”.

He attacked a ”persistent press campaign” and ”general smears that we are covering up and moving people around”, and suggested that abuse by Catholic priests had been singled out and exaggerated.

He also suggested that cynicism about the church’s handling of abuse was confined to the press, and the public understood that the church was serious about tackling the problem.

”We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church. We object to it being exaggerated. We object to being described as the only cab on the rank,” Cardinal Pell told a press conference in Sydney.

”We’ve been unable to convince public opinion for basically the last 20 years that, whatever our imperfections in individual cases, we’ve been serious about this … Because there is a persistent press campaign focused largely on us, that does not mean we are largely the principal culprits.”

At the weekend, Cardinal Pell – defying statistics presented to the Victorian state inquiry into how the churches handled child abuse that Catholic clergy committed six times as much abuse as the rest of the churches combined – insisted the church was no worse than any other.

He said it had been unfairly vilified because of anti-Catholic prejudice.

On Tuesday he again defended church practices and said the royal commission – whose terms of reference and head have yet to be announced – would judge whether the claims were true or a ”significant exaggeration”.

”We acknowledge, with shame, the extent of the problem, and I want to assure you that we have been serious in attempting to eradicate it,” he said.

Cardinal Pell, who launched the Melbourne Response abuse protocol used only in that archdiocese when he was archbishop in 1996, described how then premier Jeff Kennett had called him to his office and said ”clean it up!”

Retired bishop Geoffrey Robinson, the principal architect of the Towards Healing protocol used in every other diocese, had some sympathy for Cardinal Pell’s position, saying he would rather have a royal commission conducted by a judge than the media, as was happening now.

But Bishop Robinson, 75 – who was abused as a child and headed the Australian church’s efforts to tackle clerical sexual abuse for a decade, until he retired in 2004 because he was so disillusioned – had a different tack on the solution.

He said the abuse crisis was doing massive damage to the church but the changes needed were in Rome. ”Until things improve by 10,000 per cent over there, everything done here will be second best. But I’d prefer all the dirt to come out now rather than dribble out over the next 20 years,” he said.

Cardinal Pell suggested media coverage of abuse, which rehashed the same stories, might open old wounds among abuse victims. ”I wonder to what extent the victims are helped by this ongoing furore in the press,” he said.

Asked whether priests who were told about abuse in the confessional should report it, he said: ”The seal of confession is inviolable.” But if the priest suspected that he would be told of

such events, he should refuse to hear the confession. ”That would be my advice, and I would never hear the confession of a priest who is suspected of such a thing.”

Mr Kennett said he remembered meeting Cardinal Pell as the new archbishop of Melbourne. ”I said, ‘You are new to the job, your challenge is to clean up these allegations as quickly and best you can for the sake of the victims and in defence of the very good work the church does.”’

Asked if he had told the archbishop that ”if you don’t fix it I will”, he said he could not remember but it sounded like his language. ”I charged him, though I had no authority to do so, to clean it up.”

Mr Kennett said the abuse crisis ”broke the spirit” of Cardinal Pell’s predecessor in Melbourne, Archbishop Frank Little. ”I don’t think he could bring himself to believe that in his flock people had committed these deeds.”

Mr Kennett said the royal commission would take years and might cost hundreds of millions of dollars, ”but so be it. It has to be done.”

He suggested witnesses might need financial help.

For Aussie Shoppers!!!

Leave a reply

Online mega sale to lift local retail

Date: November 13, 2012

Rachel Wells

SOME of Australia’s biggest retailers, including Myer, Target, Westfield and Dick Smith, have signed on for Australia’s version of America’s online shopping phenomenon, Cyber Monday.

The inaugural national online sales event, called Click Frenzy, will take place next Tuesday from 7pm when up to 150 retailers slash their online prices – by between 15 and 90 per cent – for 24 hours.

Event organiser, Grant Arnott, expects the event to attract up to a million shoppers and set a new online sales record for Australia. ”We’re expecting a record volume of transactions on the day. It’s hard to say exactly how much but we expect it will be tens of millions of dollars,” he said.

The inaugural national online sales event, called Click Frenzy, will take place next Tuesday from 7pm. Photo: AFP

Participating retailers include Saba, Sportscraft, Dan Murphy’s, Kogan, The Iconic, StyleTread and Booktopia.

”The whole aim is to stimulate activity in the online retail space for the benefit of all Australian retailers whether they are online or multichannel,” he said. ”We want to establish this as an annual event before Cyber Monday really takes hold here and give Australian retailers a much needed boost ahead of Christmas.”

Mr Arnott said the event had been scheduled to begin at 7pm to capitalise on the ”couch commerce” phenomenon – the increasing trend for consumers to shop via iPads, laptops or mobiles while watching TV.

In America, Cyber Monday, which was launched in 2006 and offers online sales from more than 700 retailers, now attracts 10 million shoppers.

Held on the Monday after Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day in the US – Cyber Monday is now by far the biggest day for online sales in America, with $US1.25 billion ($1.20 billion) spent during the 24-hour sale last year.

Sarah Hayden, digital manager for Jeanswest, which is taking part in the event, says it will not only drive online sales on the day but give Australian retailers an opportunity to show off their online stores.

”The international retailers tend to get a lot of publicity, but there are a lot of Australian retailers doing great things online and this is a good opportunity to let people see that,” she said.

Target’s general manager of marketing, Lee Applbaum, said he hoped it would also ”encourage more customers to give online shopping a try”.

Shoppers will have to visit clickfrenzy.com.au to access the retailers’ online deals.

Unbelievable! Disgusting! How could any caring parent, give their child into the care of the church??

Leave a reply

I had not intended to publish anything more on this issue, until I was just signing off just now, and this issue appeared.

I do not know, how anybody, or, any thinking person, could ever again, have faith in ANY man made religion!

I do not criticise those people who feel the need for organisations such as these, for they need help of some sort, and there are no suitable alternatives, where they can seek that help, that is free of some sort of stigma.

And therein, lay the church’s power!
———————————————-

Church’s secret compensation deals

Date: November 13, 2012Jane Lee

Helen Last from In Good faith and Associates.<br /><br />

Helen Last from In Good faith and Associates. Photo: Justin McManus

THE Catholic Church has settled thousands of claims of child abuse outside of its internal complaints’ system, Melbourne Response, in an attempt to silence them, a victims’ group says.

The Melbourne Response, and its national equivalent, Towards Healing, were launched by the church in 1996 to handle abuse complaints and give pastoral care to victims. The church has traditionally referred to both processes to argue that its approach to abuse has improved over time.

In Good Faith & Associates’ director Helen Last told a state inquiry into child abuse on Monday that about 2000 victims had been through alternative ”portals” facilitated by the Catholic Church, which offered them larger amounts of compensation than they would otherwise have been entitled to.

Ms Last said the Melbourne Response’s independent commissioner, Peter O’Callaghan, QC, the Melbourne Archdiocese’s business manager and the Catholic Church’s lawyers at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, were personally involved in private settlements with victims.

”The Melbourne Response is not the only door through which victims can go to get settlements and have processes done,” she said. ”There are lawyers and barristers who relate to him that are doing lawyer-to-lawyer settlements with the archdiocese,” she said.

”They may go to Corrs Chambers Westgarth, who are the lawyers for the [Melbourne] archdiocese and the archbishop and do them there.

”If you know how to open the door then you can go in there and do your process and get a good settlement. That’s above the ceiling for the public Melbourne Response. You can get more than $75,000. This is a truly shocking situation for victims.”

Ms Last said that while the Catholic Church was in ”chaos” before 1996, trying to put ethics pages and codes of practices together, its handling of victims’ claims was then ”much better than the huge systemic betrayal and the misdemeanours going on now.

”This has to be made equal, it has to be looked at as what it’s doing to people in its inequity and dysfunction.”

Victims of clergy abuse often struggle to make successful compensation claims in court because it is often many years before they report childhood abuse. The Catholic Church is also an entity that is immune from civil lawsuits.

University of Technology Sydney law lecturer Dr Jane Wangmann told the inquiry that the statute of limitations should not apply to institutional child abuse claims, which she said should be heard on their merits.

Dr Wangmann pointed to the problem of private settlements.

”So one claim will settle and the next individual claim has to start again. The lack of transparency around settlement impacts the ability for other claimants who have similar arguments … [who do not have] anything to base their claim around.”

Dr Wangmann said that while class actions awarded much higher compensation than redress systems ”the clear disadvantage is very few of these claims have been successful”.

The Catholic Church declined to comment. Peter O’Callaghan was not available for comment by deadline.

About Time!!!

Leave a reply

No child abuser, past or present, should ever feel safe, ever again!!!
—————————————————————–

Child abuse inquiry reaches wide

Date November 13, 2012

Michelle Grattan and Richard Willingham

PM announces Royal Commission

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces a Royal Commission to investigate decades of child abuse in churches, schools and foster homes.

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has announced a sweeping royal commission into child sex abuse that will probe organisations ranging from the Catholic Church and state authorities to the Boy Scouts and sporting groups.

The inquiry into institutional responses to abuse will not just look at perpetrators. It will also cover those who were ”complicit” – for example, in alleged offenders being moved around – or who by ”averting their eyes” committed acts of omission. It will also look at how police have responded to the problem

Ms Gillard said the allegations that had come to light recently were heartbreaking. ”These are insidious, evil acts to which no child should be subject,” she said.

The victims deserved the ”most thorough of investigations” and to have their voices heard, she said.

Ms Gillard spoke to Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell, who have state inquiries under way – both offered co-operation. She also contacted the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, to assure him that the commission would not target any one church. She told a news conference the cardinal was taking a co-operative attitude.

The federal government will talk with the states and institutions about the terms of reference. The inquiry is likely to have more than one commissioner.

Given the huge scope of the inquiry – the commission would be allowed ”to go where it needs to give us a comprehensive response” – Ms Gillard indicated the government was unlikely to set a firm reporting date.

She said the royal commission was not to impede police investigations or compensation claims.

She said the inquiry would provide victims with the opportunity to speak out if they chose. ”I understand that for some people it can be healing to get the opportunity to tell their story.”

Cabinet ministers ticked off on the inquiry. Before Ms Gillard’s announcement, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had backed an inquiry but stressed it should be broad.

After a swathe of allegations of abuse in Catholic institutions in particular, Ms Gillard was under cross-party pressure to act. Chief government whip Joel Fitzgibbon urged a royal commission, as did Labor backbenchers Doug Cameron, Melissa Parke and Stephen Jones. Crossbenchers Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Nick Xenophon and the Greens also called for action.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was more qualified, saying in a statement to Fairfax that there would be a case for a royal commission if present inquiries found ”institutional resistance” by the Catholic Church or if more resources were needed to deal with these matters.

Mr Abbott, in a statement before the announcement, said

that as a community ”we must have zero tolerance for the sexual abuse of children”.

”Wherever abuse has occurred it must be tackled, and it must be tackled vigorously, openly and transparently,” Mr Abbott said. ”A lot of terrible things have been done, and a lot of people have suffered deeply.”

Professor of law at the Australian Catholic University and prominent Jesuit priest Father Frank Brennan expressed some doubts about the commission.

”It’s so broad that it risks being counterproductive,” he said, predicting it would be five or 10 times the size of the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody and would probably take three years.

Mr Baillieu welcomed the royal commission, saying that the Victorian Parliament’s inquiry into the handling of child abuse had already demonstrated its value. It would provide the opportunity for a national focus on these issues.

”The Victorian government will work co-operatively with the Commonwealth government as the royal commission is established,” Mr Baillieu said.

He said the Victorian inquiry had already undertaken significant work. The news came as the Catholic Church agreed to provide the Victorian inquiry with a request for access to files as soon as practicably possible.

”The committee is acutely conscious of the deeply personal and private nature of this material and will handle it sensitively,” a spokeswoman for the committee handling the inquiry said.

State Labor MPs were generally supportive of a more thorough investigation, although some warned a full-blown singling out of the Catholic Church may be hard to pass the Catholic Right in any caucus. Federal MPs also reported heavier than normal correspondence from constituents.

An online petition calling for royal commission, hosted at change.org, had gathered almost 10,000 signatures.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox of the NSW police, who has been involved in investigating abuse and has alleged cover-ups, said he was stunned that the commission had occurred so quickly and was delighted for the victims. With

JESSICA WRIGHT

I could just cry!

Leave a reply

I am religious, and believe, for want of a better name, in God, but not as a supreme being. That will never change for me.

But many decades ago, I lost respect for ‘the church’. I do not respect ANY religious organisations that answer to a ‘supreme’ leader. And whilst, many decades ago, I lost respect for ‘the church’, in recent decades that loss of respect, has changed to complete and utter contempt!

From what once, may have been considered isolated cases of child abuse, the overwhelming evidence now, is that the people, acting in the name of god, and sought out by people in need of support and help, most often, when their lives were at a desperately low ebb, of just plainly innocent, in fact, subjected on a broad scale, those people, to more pain, and harm, by sexually abusing them. These ‘men of god’ did not care hold young, or old, their victims were. Only that they could satisfy their perverse carnal desires.

And the evidence, is that, even to this day, ‘the church’ PROTECTS the perpetrators of these most evil of crimes. Crimes, that are in my opinion, WORSE THAN MURDER!

And we wonder why society is so fu**** up! Thank you ‘men of God’, FOR SHOWING US WHAT FORM, TRUE EVIL TAKES!
——————————————————

Brothers ‘pack raped’ boys

Date November 9, 2012: Rory Callinan

Two boys ‘disappeared’, seven later committed suicide.

Illustration: Ron Tandberg.

A GROUP of 15 religious brothers led by an ‘‘alpha paedophile’’ are suspected of the unreported deaths of two boys and the sexual abuse of more than 40 others.

At 11, given cans of beer, cigarettes, then abused

The victims – abused over three decades – include wards of the state cared for by the brothers in homes for the mentally impaired, a state parliamentary inquiry into child abuse is expected to be told. Seven are believed to have committed suicide.

The suspected paedophile brothers from the Hospitaller Order of St John of God have never been charged in Victoria because of a lack of police resources, says the submission’s author, Dr Wayne Chamley, a researcher for Broken Rites, the support group for church sex abuse victims.

While most of the suspected paedophiles are dead, Fairfax Media is aware of three who have left the Catholic order and moved away but are in roles where they could have access to children.

The allegations relate to the order’s operations at Cheltenham and Lilydale, where it provided homes for wards of the state, orphans, boys given up by their parents and those with intellectual disabilities from the 1950s to the 1980s.

The order paid out more than $3.6 million in 2002 to 24 men who had alleged they were abused as children by brothers from the order.

Victorian police at the time confirmed they had launched an investigation into the allegations and taken statements from a number of alleged victims, and that the Director of Public Prosecutions was to decide on any charges to be laid.

But Dr Chamley and victims have confirmed to Fairfax that none of the 15 suspected paedophile brothers has ever been charged in Victoria.

Dr Chamley will give details of alleged horrific abuse at the order’s homes, including claims that boys were subjected to pack rapes and beatings and being drugged.

He will allege that two boys were sent to a mental institution by the ‘‘alpha paedophile’’ brother and given electroshock therapy, which impaired one so badly he was unable to care for himself and later died.

Dr Chamley will also mention research indicating that seven of a group of 69 boys who went to the order’s homes had committed suicide.

His most serious allegation will be that two boys might have been killed – and their deaths not reported – at the order’s farm at Lilydale.

Speaking on Thursday, Dr Chamley said there were witnesses to the alleged suspicious deaths, which occurred in the early 1960s. He said three men who spent time at the Lilydale home had independently told him of an incident in which a boy was thrown down stairs.

‘‘That boy was taken off to the infirmary [unconscious] and never seen again,’’ said Dr Chamley.

He said the three witnesses were still alive and could be contacted by police.

He said the second alleged death was reported by a former resident of one of the homes who said he had found a boy dead in the bed next to him.

‘‘He spoke about waking up and finding this fellow beside him dead. This fellow had recently arrived in the place,’’ said Dr Chamley. He said the witness to this incident was still alive and had been severely traumatised by his stay in the home.

Dr Chamley said the main victims of the brothers at Cheltenham were boys who never received any visitors and were quartered in upstairs dormitories away from the boys who did receive visits.

”They speak of being given a red medicine that made them drowsy. Pack rapes took place and boys who resisted or attempted to fight off their attackers were beaten mercilessly. These were boys of seven to 15 years up against adult males,” he said.

Dr Chamley said the alleged paedophiles would become hyperactive after taking the boys to football matches.

”At the football matches the boys were provided with beer and encouraged to drink with the accompanying brothers,” he said.

”After these occasions the paedophiles would become hyperactive and overt. The evening meal was followed by buggery and pack rapes and the remainder of Saturday night spent by many boys crying and in fear. And then Mass on Sunday morning.”

Dr Chamley will give his submission – which has been posted online – to the inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations on Friday. He is a retired endocrinologist who works as a volunteer for Broken Rites, for which he conducted research on the St John of God order and assisted in negotiating settlements for abuse victims.

The order’s spokesman said the Australian provincial, Brother Timothy Graham, was in Portugal and was unable to be contacted for comment. He said the order would appear at the parliamentary inquiry if requested.

The spokesman said the order had first become aware in 1997 that there had been sexual abuse at its facilities in Victoria.

”The order was proactive and immediately opened internal and police inquiries. This culminated in a multimillion-dollar mediated settlement which was ratified by the Supreme Court of Victoria in June 2002, at which time Victoria Police also referred the matters to the DPP,” he said.

Several St John of God brothers have served prison time in New Zealand for assaults on boys in homes there.

Victoria Police on Thursday declined to explain why no one was charged over the allegations. A spokeswoman said police had made a submission to the inquiry and ”any further comment at this stage may prejudice those proceedings”.

“Victoria Police will await the findings and recommendations of the inquiry before making any further comment,” she said.

For help or information visit beyondblue.org.au, call Suicide Helpline Victoria on 1300 651 251, or Lifeline on 131 114.

da Don's blog

I owe allegiance to no one!

Monthly Archives: November 2012

Good news for a change!!! :)

Stephen Cauchi and Antoni Partington

Falcons – not your average CBD residents

Global Warming IS Real!

Degrees of devastation: major report warns of drastically hotter planet

Tom Arup

World Bank warns of climate change ‘disaster’

And Cardinal Pell wanted FACTS???

Church holds sex dossiers

It just keeps getting worse and worse!!!

PARENTS, TAXPAYERS BANKROLLING PAYOUTS

Parents, taxpayers bankrolling payouts

RELATED LINKS

Priests ‘used guns, dogs in abuse’

Hahahahahahaha!!! I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous!!!

Hahahahahahaha!!! I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous!!!

Pell blames media ‘smear’

For Aussie Shoppers!!!

Online mega sale to lift local retail

Rachel Wells

Unbelievable! Disgusting! How could any caring parent, give their child into the care of the church??

Church’s secret compensation deals

About Time!!!

Child abuse inquiry reaches wide

Michelle Grattan and Richard Willingham

PM announces Royal Commission

I could just cry!

Brothers ‘pack raped’ boys

Stephen Cauchi and Antoni Partington

Falcons – not your average CBD residents

Share this:

Degrees of devastation: major report warns of drastically hotter planet

Tom Arup

World Bank warns of climate change ‘disaster’

Share this:

Church holds sex dossiers

Share this:

PARENTS, TAXPAYERS BANKROLLING PAYOUTS

Parents, taxpayers bankrolling payouts

RELATED LINKS Priests ‘used guns, dogs in abuse’

Share this:

Share this:

Pell blames media ‘smear’

Share this:

Online mega sale to lift local retail

Rachel Wells

Share this:

Church’s secret compensation deals

Share this:

Child abuse inquiry reaches wide

Michelle Grattan and Richard Willingham PM announces Royal Commission

Share this:

Brothers ‘pack raped’ boys

Share this:

RELATED LINKS

Priests ‘used guns, dogs in abuse’

Michelle Grattan and Richard Willingham

PM announces Royal Commission