About public hearings

The Royal Commission holds formal public hearings to examine evidence about child sexual abuse and how institutions responded to allegations of abuse. Each public hearing examines a different case study.
Witness lists, transcripts, exhibits, images and associated submissions are available for each case study. The Royal Commission held its First Sitting at the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday 3 April 2013.

http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/case-studies 

'Who am I?': Son's heartbreaking moment mum doesn't recognise him

A heartbroken son has shared the moment his mother with dementia forgot who he was for the first time.  Joey Daley, 45, created a weekly video series to document his mother’s ongoing battle with dementia to raise awareness about the “all consuming” disease.
Despite being aware of all the potential symptoms attached to dementia, the Ohio man was reduced to tears when his mum Molly admitted she didn’t know who he was.

https://nz.news.yahoo.com/world/a/34320939/who-am-i-son-films-heartbreaking-moment-mother-with-dementia-doesnt-recognise-him/#page1 

Byrnes: Church would consider out-of-court settlement

Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes told the Post during an interview yesterday that he would consider an out-of-court settlement in the child sexual abuse cases currently filed against members of the Catholic Church.
"I can say that we'd be happy to settle, but then again, that's a legal negotiation," Byrnes said.

http://www.postguam.com/news/local/byrnes-church-would-consider-out-of-court-settlement/article_3e346df0-e93f-11e6-a3cc-17bc8c3581a4.html 

Extent of child sex abuse scandal ‘will shock, confront,’ community warned

A royal commission will reveal “horrific” figures next week detailing the extent of child abuse allegedly committed by Catholic officials, which “will shock and confront the community”, the church said.

The figures, collected by the church’s own Truth, Justice and Healing Council, will be released during one of the last public hearings conducted by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/royal-commission/extent-of-child-sex-abuse-scandal-will-shock-confront-community-warned/news-story/e464d8a27a1457a384f52d180ade6fe8 

Culture alone cannot be blamed for drop in vocations, pope says

The number of religious-order priests in the world has been constantly declining but cultural issues are not the only factor and religious orders need to change in order to foster vocations. "Alongside much holiness, there also are situations of counter-witness that make fidelity difficult,"  Pope Francis said.
ROME - While there is a need to evangelize a culture that tells young people money equals success and commitments aren’t forever, stopping the “hemorrhage” of people leaving religious orders also requires changes from the orders themselves, Pope Francis said.

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/01/30/culture-alone-cannot-blamed-drop-vocations-pope-says/ 

On the Vatican's radar

When six of the more than a dozen sexual abuse cases for former local altar boys were moved to the federal District Court of Guam earlier last week, one reason for the transfer of jurisdiction was the lack of local judges who didn’t have a conflict or potential conflict.
But there’s another major significance to the transfer of the six cases to the federal court. The federal court must take jurisdiction, says David Lujan’s law firm, which is representing the accusers, because this isn’t a Guam issue alone.

http://www.postguam.com/news/local/on-the-vatican-s-radar/article_a939405a-e488-11e6-9fbc-4fc0221b9bbe.html 

Former employee sues group that represents victims of clergy abuse

Gretchen Rachel Hammond accused organisation of being motivated by an ideological hostility to the Catholic Church

A former director of development for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (Snap) has said that the organisation is more interested in fundraising and taking kickbacks from lawyers suing the Catholic Church than in helping survivors.

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/01/23/former-employee-sues-group-that-represents-victims-of-clergy-abuse/ 

Former boss of child abuse probe sues Scottish Government for £500,000 over claims she was forced to quit

THE former boss of a child abuse investigation is suing the Scottish Government for £500,000 over claims they forced her to quit. Former chair Susan O’Brien QC stood down saying ministerial interference meant the probe wasn’t able to work independently.

Ms O’Brien’s legal team claim her resignation came as Holyrood forces were attempting to have her SACKED, we can reveal. The highly respected lawyer says they had earlier threatened to remove her which they called “the nuclear option”.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/511395/former-boss-of-child-abuse-probe-sues-scottish-government-for-500000-over-claims-she-was-forced-to-quit/ 

What cracked open the child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church?

Thomas Doyle remembers exactly what he was doing 33 years ago. He was a young priest with a big future, working in the Vatican embassy in Washington D.C.
Then an envelope landed on his desk and changed everything – and not just his own life. It would crack open the scandal of clerical sex abuse and become the biggest crisis for the Catholic Church since the Protestant reformation 500 years ago.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/what-cracked-open-the-child-sex-abuse-scandal-in-the-catholic-c/8228024 

Tom Doyle addresses priest sex abuse survivors

Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle, who has worked with survivors of priest sex abuse for more than three decades, said Friday, July 31, he continues to grapple with its full dimensions.
“It just seems too big to get my head around,” he said. Doyle spoke July 31 at the 2015 gathering of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), which drew several hundred abuse survivors and supporters to the Westin Alexandria hotel here.

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/tom-doyle-addresses-priest-sex-abuse-survivors 

Church sex abuse victims urged to be more militant

A prominent anti-clerical abuse advocate says Australia is decades behind the United States when it comes to dealing with the victims of sexual abuse.

Reverend Tom Doyle, a Catholic priest who is also a vocal critic of the Church, says Australian abuse victims should become more militant in taking on the Church through the courts and in the media.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-12/church-sex-abuse-victims-urged-to-be-more-militant/2334858 

Court tells priest suspended over 'sexual bullying' expose to quit parish house

A priest suspended for alleging a culture of homosexual bullying within the Catholic Church in Scotland has lost a legal challenge over access to his parish house.
Parishioners in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, have been told an interdict was granted at Hamilton Sheriff Court forbidding Father Matthew Despard, who has been suspended since last November, from preventing his replacement gaining access to the presbytery. Father Despard, 48, had refused to leave the presbytery house of St John Ogilvie, High Blantyre, having changed the locks.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13143275.Court_tells_priest_suspended_over__sexual_bullying__expose_to_quit_parish_house/ 

We will root out all 'systemic failures', child abuse inquiry head

The judge leading the start of a national child abuse inquiry has promised to "find the truth" and not shirk from exposing cover-ups where they occurred.  Supreme Courts of Scotland judge Lady Smith said the Scottish Inquiry into Historical Abuse of Children in Care (SIHACC) will dig out all "systemic failures".

She made her pledge as the first sitting of the SIHACC got underway at Parliament House in Edinburgh. More than 60 institutions including leading boarding schools and residential homes run by religious groups are being investigated by the inquiry. Prestigious schools including Gordonstoun, Fettes and Loretto are being investigated. 

http://www.policeprofessional.com/news.aspx?id=28361