Tag Archive for 'Towards Healing'

Pope Benedict XVI apologises to victims of sexual abuse in Australia

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by
Kim
4 months, 2 weeks ago
in Activism, Authoritarianism, Crime, Disasters, Ethics, Media, Parenting, Politics, Religion and Sydney
. 36 Comments

The text of the papal apology, delivered this morning at a Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, can be read here.

The symbolism of the setting for the apology - a mass for seminarians and members of religious orders and the consecration of a new altar for the Cathedral - was no doubt intended by the Vatican to signal that the Pope was speaking sternly to those at the centre of the institution. But it’s also deeply problematic - as it suggests that the problem is only one for the church, excluding the victims who were left outside while the pomp and panoply of the liturgy took place for the exclusive benefit of the hierarchy.

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Emma Foster: In memoriam

Published
by
Kim
4 months, 3 weeks ago
in Authoritarianism, Crime, Disasters, Ethics, Law, Media, Melbourne, Parenting, Politics, Religion and Sydney
. 56 Comments

I hope that Anthony Foster and his family, who intend to confront Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal George Pell in Sydney this week over the Catholic Church’s treatment of their late daughter, Emma Foster, who took her own life in January and her sister Katie, both of whom were raped as primary school children by Father Kevin O’Donnell, aren’t dismissed as “Catholic bashing” and raining on the World Youth Day parade or subjected to victim blaming as Anthony Jones was. Foster told the tragic tale of his daughters’ abuse and how it marked their lives horrendously for the worse, and probably brought Emma’s life to a close, on Lateline tonight.

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