Trigger warning: sexual abuse, sexual assault, child abuse.
The National Catholic Safeguarding Standards launched today are the outcome of the work of Catholic Professional Standards Ltd, a body that has insisted it is 'functionally independent' from the institutional Australian Church. Questions have been asked about that independence, and will continue to be asked.
But other, more important, questions will be asked by many who read the Standards, or simply read that such standards have been issued in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
These questions will not arise out of a vacuum. They, just like the Standards themselves, have arisen out of a tragic context. The sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy and church personnel, and the cover-ups and denial that allowed it to continue, have become defining characteristics of the Church in our society.
The Standards must be implemented, immediately and in full. However they are not, in and of themselves, enough. The Church, after all, has no shortage of standards: from the Ten Commandments, to the catechism, to canon law and beyond.
Then there is Towards Healing, the Australian Catholic Bishops document outlining 'principles and procedures in responding to complaints of abuse against personnel of the Catholic Church in Australia'. It was first published in 1996, and revised in 2000 and 2010.
There are guidelines, standards, rules and laws galore. None of these stopped clergy and church personnel abusing children, or necessarily led those in authority to act.
The Australian community could therefore be forgiven a certain scepticism. Legislative changes, stronger governance and mission statements mean little without metanoia — a change of heart.
"Individuals who make the effort to complain about any matter will be reassured only when they find that complaints management is effective and based on gospel values, rather than corporate box-ticking."
Few people would want the Standards to be upheld more than Patricia Feenan of Morpeth, NSW. Patricia's son, Daniel, was abused by now deceased priest, James Fletcher. Fletcher was convicted on nine counts of sexual abuse in December 2004. He died well before his sentence was completed.
'Standards needed to be created because of the woefully inadequate way child sexual abuse has been handled by the Catholic Church historically,' Patricia says. It is, however, the way such standards are implemented that counts, as well as addressing 'the clericalism that led to abusers getting away with their crimes'.
Individuals who make the effort to complain about any