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The Church is recognised as having tolerated abuse of children and young adults, and sometimes regarded it as character building, in connection with corporal punlshment and activities such as drinking rituals at university residential colleges. But the Catholic college at Sydney University has broken with tradition by implementing its zero tolerance policy.
As with Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap, an act of violence involving children acts as a catalyst to exacerbate the adult characters' prejudices, insecurities and resentments. Aided by alcohol, civility is gradually stripped away as a polite gathering degenerates into bullying and abuse.
At its heart is an act of violence against a child. But on the whole The Slap stands as an epic parable of middle class Australia. The tagline 'Whose side are you on?' is a furphy: it is impossible to wholly sympathise with any character.
Senator Nick Xenophon's call to protect children by ending the seal of confession was an affront to freedom of religion. But he speaks for many Australians, whose goodwill is necessary to preserve such religious practices.
The Christian Brothers have made efforts to atone for cases of child abuse that occurred in their institutions. That Oranges and Sunshine condemns them universally is due less to malice than to the fact that the filmmaker's sympathies sit squarely with the victims.
The suffering of children opens a door into the hardness of society. Think about the experience of the Stolen Generations, the detention of asylum seeker children, the sexual abuse of children. Societies try to close doors that open on to vulnerability.
A barroom brawl is transformed in Boy's head into a version of Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' music video. It's 1984 and Jackson is at his artistic and popular peak: pre-surgery, pre-child abuse allegations. Boy's worship is pure, but as an audience watching in 2010 we know the purity is transient.
Many Catholics complained Carl Williams was allowed burial in a Catholic Church. Some victims of sexual abuse were angry that bishops and priests glorified the funeral of a priest who had been charged with sexual abuse. These responses reflect a changing understanding of funerals in the Church.
The pastor terrifies and humiliates his adolescent son with tall tales about a painful and fatal illness that can be contracted through masturbation. We are led to believe such secret acts of parental abuse lay at the core of the more public crimes that occur in the village.
In Ireland, the attitude of locals to the Murphy and Ryan reports into child abuse in Catholic institutions is commonly anger at the apparent obfuscation by Church leaders. This St Patrick's Day, spare a thought for the ordinary priest in modern Dublin.
The case for Polanski's avoiding extradition has generally received a sympathetic hearing. The same sympathy is not generally shown to clergy who have been tried for less serious acts committed just as many years ago. October 2009
The Prime Minister offered his apology to those who spent their childhood in care, via a carefully crafted speech. He said it is an 'ugly story' that must be told without fear or favour. Some who worked in or were associated with these children's homes may not like this judgement. November 2009
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