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Keywords: Clergy Sexual Abuse

  • AUSTRALIA

    Church sexual abuse in the media

    • Michael Mullins
    • 12 November 2012
    39 Comments

    Those paying close attention to media coverage of clergy sexual abuse might find Cardinal George Pell’s defence of the Church hard to swallow. But the weekend’s resignation of the BBC director general over mistakes in investigative reporting should cause us to treat the genre with a degree of scepticism, even though the media helps us to empathise with victims.

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  • RELIGION

    Original sin and clergy sex abuse

    • ANDREW HAMILTON
    • 25 October 2012
    66 Comments

    Being a Catholic priest during public enquiries into sexual abuse within the Church is a bracing experience. Infinitely less hurtful than being the victim of abuse, of course. But it prompts musing about the ways in which evil actions work out in a group and affect the individual members of the group and its perception by others.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Unlocking the culture of clergy sex abuse

    • Michael Mullins
    • 23 April 2012
    27 Comments

    Victoria's parliamentary committee has much it could learn from Ireland's Murphy Report into clerical sex abuse, which identified the 'don't ask, don't tell' culture under which bishops did not talk about it even among themselves and were unaware of how widespread the problem was.

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  • RELIGION

    Vigilante Xenophon's name shame

    • Andrew McGowan
    • 16 September 2011
    29 Comments

    Sexual offenders among clergy and church workers have often used their privileged status to act as though they were above the law. By using parliamentary privilege to name an alleged perpetrator, Senator Nick Xenophon has acted in a way that is, ironically, all too similar.

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  • RELIGION

    Pope's theory on clergy sex abuse

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 16 June 2011
    33 Comments

    Benedict uses large theoretical constructs to reflect on the condition of Western societies and the Church. This can simplify complex realities and provide a focus for reflection and conversation. But the weaknesses of this approach are revealed when he blames bad moral theory for sexual abuse by the clergy.

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  • RELIGION

    Clergy sex abuse blame game

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 02 June 2011
    21 Comments

    The media said the US Catholic Bishops' John Jay report blamed the 1960s sexual revolution for church sex abuse. More significantly, it implied that the roots of the sexual abuse crisis instead lie in the shallow Catholic culture of earlier decades.

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  • RELIGION

    Twelve Steps to healing an abusive Church

    • Neil Ormerod
    • 23 March 2011
    32 Comments

    I received a letter from a former student. Ten years ago, he had suddenly vanished without warning or further communication. Now he was about to reveal the reasons for his disappearance. It was the sort of story I had heard often before.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Theology coloured by clergy sex abuse

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 10 February 2011

    Lay Catholic theologian Neil Ormerod's approach was strongly coloured in the early 1990s when he and his wife Thea became activists on behalf of survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Art prize tests religious convention

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 03 September 2010

    The annual Blake Prize for Religious Art has never been far from controversy. Works honoured this year include Sydney artist Rodney Pople’s Cardinal with Altar Boy, which is a provocative painting dealing with clergy sexual abuse. Its setting is the interior of a beautiful baroque church, and it portrays a headless prelate dressed in ecclesiastical finery, with an altar boy in his lap.

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  • RELIGION

    Funerals for criminals and abusers

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 May 2010
    23 Comments

    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.

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  • RELIGION

    Catholic Church needs total reform

    • Pat Power
    • 23 April 2010
    81 Comments

    The crisis facing the Church arising out of sexual abuse is arguably the most serious challenge it has faced since the Reformation. Issues such as authoritarianism, compulsory celibacy, the participation of women and the teaching on sexuality cannot be brushed aside.

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  • RELIGION

    Best of 2009: Roman Polanski and clergy sexual abuse

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 14 January 2010
    6 Comments

    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

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