Father of girls raped by Catholic priest told to stop 'dwelling on old wounds'

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A father who wants to confront the Pope about the rape of his daughters by a Catholic priest has reacted angrily to claims by a senior Australian bishop that he was dwelling crankily on old wounds.

Anthony Foster, who is flying from Britain to Sydney, is demanding that Benedict XVI and Australia’s senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, beg for forgiveness over the repeated rape of his daughters by the priest at a Melbourne primary school between 1988 and 1993.

Mr Foster said that his daughters had been devastated by the attacks. The elder, Emma, commited suicide this year, aged 26. Her younger sister, Katie, who became a heavy drinker, was hit by a car, aged 15, and now needs 24-hour care. ...

But when asked yesterday about an Australian Broadcasting Commission report on the Fosters’ complaints, the Church’s World Youth Day spokesman, Bishop Anthony Fisher, sounded dismissive. He said that he had not seen the report because he had been at the celebrations. “Happily, I think most of Australia was enjoying, delighting in the beauty and goodness of these young people,” he said, “rather than dwelling crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds.”

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I submit it is time to relegate this institution to the Museum of Extinct Civilizations, before it destroys any more people's lives.

[ 17 July 2008: Message edited by: unionist ]

ETA: Just heard on CBC that the Pope's promise to apolgise in Sydney for sexual abuse of children by RCC clergy was "misinterpreted" by reporters, and there' some doubt that the Pope will do in Oz as he did in America - apologise.

[ 17 July 2008: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]

Heck, that's old, old news. If that was going to stop them, it would have stopped them at the registration stage. Or the "being interested at all" stage.

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Originally posted by Scott Piatkowski:
So, an organization based on graphic images of a crucifixion that (allegedly) occurred 2000-years ago now wants people to stop "dwelling on old wounds"?

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"It has served us well, this myth of Christ" Pope Leo X

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Originally posted by Michelle:
Please do not generalize about "Catholics". It's one thing to criticize the church, and another thing entirely to make sweeping statements about all Catholics.

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How about sweeping statements generalising about Catholics who fail to criticise the church for attempting to marginalise the horrific abuses inflicted by its priests.

This medieval institution has been used as a tool of conquest and subjugation for centuries and, if there is such a thing as hell, the church's functionaries and enablers of abuse must be at the head of the line.

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Originally posted by Scott Piatkowski:
So, an organization based on graphic images of a crucifixion that (allegedly) occurred 2000-years ago now wants people to stop "dwelling on old wounds"?

Makes perfect sense to me.

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Originally posted by Boom Boom:
That Bishop should be expelled from the church.

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Why? For telling it like it is? And just leave the lying bloodsucking well-briefed hypocrites in charge?

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Originally posted by jester:
May I quote you on this in future? Excellent analogy.

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I was saying it the way one might say

"Americans are complicit in the Iraq war"

or

"The rich don't care about the sufferings of others".

I would expect we all know that there are plenty of Americans who don't support the war, and yet we also know that if "Americans" didn't support it, the troops would be home by now.

Similarly, "someone" keeps supporting the Catholic Church, even though there's been no shortage of pedophile priests and no shortage of evidence that the Church covered up for them, and in some cases simply moved them to a new parish so they'd have a whole new crop of kids to abuse.

But otherwise, if your church does that and continues to do that, and you keep supporting the church through your membership, your donations, or both, then how aren't you complicit in that?

If I'm a Hell's Angel, and it's made clear to me time and again that Hell's Angels have an unabated history of violence and lawlessness but I stay on anyway, is it reasonable for me to stick my head in the sand and say it's all someone else, and that I'm just a regular fellow who likes motorbikes? Wouldn't we agree that by supporting them, I'm complicit in their crimes?

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Originally posted by reglafella:
...Catholics' hearts are so big and so full of love that they can forgive their clergy raping children. Over and over and over and over again.

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As an ex-Catholic and former alter boy, this general statement does not conflict with my own personal knowledge of the Catholic hive-mind way of dealing with controversial issues.

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Originally posted by It's Me D:
So in short catholics must either leave the church or they support the rape of children? Short of that what exactly would you have them do?

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But otherwise, if your church does that and continues to do that, and you keep supporting the church through your membership, your donations, or both, then how aren't you complicit in that?

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unionist:

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Speak up. Disagree. Disassociate themselves. Say, "not in my name". There are many choices.

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Although you are in agreement that all Catholics are to blame for the failings of the institution to which they belong, there seems to be some disagreement as to what Catholics can actually do about this.

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Originally posted by It's Me D:
Although you are in agreement that all Catholics are to blame for the failings of the institution to which they belong,

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Excuse me? Catholics are NOT to blame. The Church and its leadership are to blame. What are you reading, my invisible ink? If you don't know my views, you don't need to guess or invent - just read my thousands of posts on the issue. Catholics are not to blame. There, is that clear?????

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Unionist if Catholics follow your advice how would you know about it? How do you know they aren't? If you don't, why is it okay to hold them responsible for the rape of children?

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I don't hold them responsible. You should be much more careful before making slanderous comments. Perhaps you are confusing me with someone else?

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Excuse me? Catholics are NOT to blame. The Church and its leadership are to blame. What are you reading, my invisible ink? If you don't know my views, you don't need to guess or invent - just read my thousands of posts on the issue. Catholics are not to blame. There, is that clear?????

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unionist, I am sorry.

[ 17 July 2008: Message edited by: It's Me D ]

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Originally posted by It's Me D:

unionist, I am sorry.

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Accepted, thanks, and I didn't mean to rant, but I was obviously rather upset - there are people on this board who make no distinction whatsoever between attacks on some religions and their institutions, and attacks on ordinary people who exercise their freedom of conscience.

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Having said that, do you have any particular view on the topic of this thread?

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To the news story: Both the actions of the priest at the Melbourne primary school and the words of Bishop Anthony Fisher should obviously be condemned; the Church should admit to incidents like this (and the culture that makes them so prevalent) and do whatever it can to redress them.

To your introductory remark:

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I submit it is time to relegate this institution to the Museum of Extinct Civilizations, before it destroys any more people's lives.

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Originally posted by It's Me D:
Both the actions of the priest at the Melbourne primary school and the words of Bishop Anthony Fisher should obviously be condemned;

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Originally posted by unionist:
And I received this:

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Do you see this as an institutional problem or an individual one?

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