Towards Healing / Criminal Justice /Canon Law - a few thoughts (Main Forum)

by PaulW, Tuesday, May 18, 2010, 22:26 (1101 days ago) @ desi

The 7:30 Report and Lateline and Bishop Walker's press release raised a a number of issues.

TOWARDS HEALING
(a)The Towards Healing document was originally produced in December 1996 as a result of a joint effort by the Australian Catholic Bishop's Conference and the Conference of the Leader's of Religious Institutes.

As I understand it the only two groups in Australia who were not party to the original document were the Jesuits and the Archdiocese of Melbourne (then headed by George Pell). Whilst it has always endeavoured to have some uniformity and procedures the practical side is that there may be a diversity of responses depending on which diocese or which religious order is involved.

It was acknowledged that the original document was deficient and Professor Patrick Parkinson from Sydney University (a non-Catholic as I understand it) was asked to do a substantial revision. The revised document did not come out until December 2000. As I understand it there was some delay caused by the need to align what was in the Towards Healing document with the provisions of Canon Law.

A further revision by Professor Parkinson took place last year and the new document released in January 2010.

The latest document is a considerable improvement on the original 1996 version. However, no matter how good the processes look on paper this is never any guarantee that it will work well in practice for victims. I'm sure every diocese, school, parish or any other Catholic institution now has in place policies and procedures designed to protect children. No doubt there has been many hours of training. However we have had the recent situation in Toowoomba where educational staff were sacked because of the inadequacy of their responses to a situation. It seemed to me that it was the same old story - they didn't know how to handle it and sat on their hands.

(b) The Victims: One of the victims on the 7:30 Report last night spoke in very negative terms about her experiences with Towards Healing. She is probably one of many.

Some victims feel they have received some benefit from the process. However it is often a long way from what could be described as 'towards healing'.

In my limited experience I have not come across a victim who any longer has any relationship with institutional Catholicism.

The only church that I have heard of where victims were comfortable attending was, needless to say, St Mary's South Brisbane.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

The victim last night who had a negative experience of Towards Healing indicated that she was now intending to go to the police and that perhaps she should have done that in the first place.

There is certainly a greater emphasis now in the Towards Healing document abou victims being encouarged to report matters to the police

Whilst many victims may have valid criticisms of their experiences under Towards Healing the experiences of complainants (victims) in the criminal justice system can also be an also be an extremely difficult personal and emotional journey. It can certainly be as protracted as any delays that may have occurred in the Towards Healing process.

Abuse matters are difficult to successfully prosecute in a criminal court.

James has already identified situations where the accused perpetrator is found not guilty or the police decide not to go ahead with charges. Particular difficulties take place with 'historical' cases. These are cases where the victim may have been a child; the incident may have occurred many decades previously. Defence lawyers may push for a significant amount of detail about the allegations and if these cannot be provided to the satisfaction of the court then charges can get tossed out. I have certainly know of this to happen in some clerical abuse cases.

It can be fairly devestating for victims to go through a couple of years in the criminal justice system only to have the alleged perpetrator get off.

A lot of media publicity in recent months has been around the issue of church authorities reporting matters to the police. However many victims will not necessarily want to go down the path of criminal charges. Without a formal complaint from the victim the police may not be able to do much

There is often the expectation by victims that if a perpetrator is convicted and jailed that somehow this will enable them to get on with life. This is not always the case. The modern secular media word for healing seems to be 'closure'. It is a word I personally and professionally abhor as I don't believe that it adequately reflects the reality of people's lives.

Similarly some victims have received substantial payouts as a result of legal proceedings against the Church. Again there is the expectation that somehow the money will improve the quality of their life or make them happy. It invariably doesn't.

It is my perception that there is significant tension between an attempted pastoral response under Towards Healing, the criminal justice system and Canon Law. I don't have much knowledge or experience of Canon Law. However I fear that these three areas don't sit comfortably together and that the tensions between the three will not ever resolve in a constructive manner which is beneficial to victims.

As Geoffrey Robinson writes "Sexual abuse is a bulldozer gouging a road through this fragile ecosystem of love and maening that a person has been painfully constructing "

PaulW