Survivors feel short changed by Pell's evidence
ABC Radio (PM)
Rachael Brown
3 March 2016
To listen to the interview: MP3 DOWNLOAD
TRANSCRIPT:
DAVID MARK: Don't ever underestimate broken people: that's the resounding message from church abuse survivors in Rome.
While they don't regret making the trip, most feel they didn't get what they wanted from cardinal Pell's evidence. Many have bemoaned the cardinal's lack of empathy with the church's victims.
Rachael Brown reports.
RACHAEL BROWN: Outside the royal commission, a weary bunch of travellers wanted to say thanks; for those who've kept them alive, and those who've supported their pilgrimage to Rome.
It sounded like a roll call of Ballarat's pain.
PHIL NAGLE: Phil Nagle here, I'd just like to express how humble we are to be here.
PAUL AUCHETTL: I'd like to thank everybody back home for getting us here.
TONY WARDLEY: All religions who worship their god or gods must realise the messengers are only messengers, they are not above everyone else.
MARK HARRISON: My name's Mark Harrison. A lot of family members were abused by Gerald Ridsdale as well, and they weren't able to make it here, so I'm kind of representing them.
ROSEMARY NOLAN: My brother John Ruth is no longer with us. He died at the hands of Ridsdale. I'm so grateful to the media for spreading what has happened in a tiny little town across the world.
PAUL LEVEY: My name is Paul Levey. We are like many cogs that make a clock turn.
GARRY SCULLEY: Thank you, my name is Garry Sculley. I'd like to thank my family. They were my first rock. If they weren't there, I wouldn't be here.
DOMINIC RIDSDALE: My name is Dominic Ridsdale. I'm from Ballarat. To all the children in the world, please speak up. It's not your fault.
PETER BLENKIRON: All the people of Australia that did the crowd fund, you are our voices.
DAVID RIDSDALE: My name is David Ridsdale. Most of these men I only met nine months ago. I feel like it is a thousand years.
RACHAEL BROWN: The church abuse survivors say it's been an emotionally taxing time especially, they say, having to sit through comments like cardinal Pell's, that he didn't pursue a boy's claim against Edward Dowlan because the boy didn't ask him to.
Peter Blenkiron would be one of Brother Dowlan's next victims.
PETER BLENKIRON: I sat there while he admitted having knowledge of the guy who got me down in '73 and if action had have been taken, then that little boy there wouldn't have had to go through what he went through the year after. It's difficult to sit there with watching the lack of empathy around something that's not only affected my life but so many others.
RACHAEL BROWN: David Ridsdale again.
DAVID RIDSDALE: We hear so much people say things like, "It was a different time, or we didn't know." I don't buy it because it was never a good time to rape children.
RACHAEL BROWN: He'll be part of the group who'll meet with cardinal Pell tomorrow. He says these men might be broken, but they're not beaten.
DAVID RIDSDALE: Don't ever underestimate broken people. Just because you see people in the street and you think there is something wrong with them, stop the judging. You know, pick them up, like we picked each other up.
REPORTER: When you are face to face with George Pell, what will you tell him?
DAVID RIDSDALE: There are a few things we will say but we as a group have made a commitment to ourselves to be diplomatic and dignified.
We feel that the church still fails to under the impact of trauma and what PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) does to people. We do not react the way everyone else does and it has been our loved ones and our friends and family who have had to bear the cost of that.
RACHAEL BROWN: Phil Nagle is one who feels he didn't get what he came for.
PHIL NAGLE: Ballarat survivors came to Rome to hear truth and honesty from George. We feel that we have been deceived and lied to.
RACHAEL BROWN: Stephen Woods hopes the men will get an audience with the Pope, who's reportedly been reading the daily royal commission transcripts.
STEPHEN WOODS: We are really wishing that the Pope intervenes here, the Pope is willing to meet with us, and just hear our concerns, hear the pains of so many thousands of victims in Australia.
RACHAEL BROWN: Just off a plane from Israel, Manny Waks, the whistleblower of sexual abuse in Melbourne's orthodox Jewish community, says he felt compelled to offer his community's support, as this sorry saga isn't unique to Catholicism.
Yet he says cardinal Pell must resign.
MANNY WAKS: If he was aware of some of those issues that went on back then, clearly he's culpable. If he didn't know of what was going on, then he's in competent. If he's not going to do that for the victims and the survivors, then he should do that for the Catholic Church itself.
DAVID MARK: That's the sexual abuse whistleblower Manny Waks ending that report by Rachael Brown.
Originally published at ABC.
TRANSCRIPT:
DAVID MARK: Don't ever underestimate broken people: that's the resounding message from church abuse survivors in Rome.
While they don't regret making the trip, most feel they didn't get what they wanted from cardinal Pell's evidence. Many have bemoaned the cardinal's lack of empathy with the church's victims.
Rachael Brown reports.
RACHAEL BROWN: Outside the royal commission, a weary bunch of travellers wanted to say thanks; for those who've kept them alive, and those who've supported their pilgrimage to Rome.
It sounded like a roll call of Ballarat's pain.
PHIL NAGLE: Phil Nagle here, I'd just like to express how humble we are to be here.
PAUL AUCHETTL: I'd like to thank everybody back home for getting us here.
TONY WARDLEY: All religions who worship their god or gods must realise the messengers are only messengers, they are not above everyone else.
MARK HARRISON: My name's Mark Harrison. A lot of family members were abused by Gerald Ridsdale as well, and they weren't able to make it here, so I'm kind of representing them.
ROSEMARY NOLAN: My brother John Ruth is no longer with us. He died at the hands of Ridsdale. I'm so grateful to the media for spreading what has happened in a tiny little town across the world.
PAUL LEVEY: My name is Paul Levey. We are like many cogs that make a clock turn.
GARRY SCULLEY: Thank you, my name is Garry Sculley. I'd like to thank my family. They were my first rock. If they weren't there, I wouldn't be here.
DOMINIC RIDSDALE: My name is Dominic Ridsdale. I'm from Ballarat. To all the children in the world, please speak up. It's not your fault.
PETER BLENKIRON: All the people of Australia that did the crowd fund, you are our voices.
DAVID RIDSDALE: My name is David Ridsdale. Most of these men I only met nine months ago. I feel like it is a thousand years.
RACHAEL BROWN: The church abuse survivors say it's been an emotionally taxing time especially, they say, having to sit through comments like cardinal Pell's, that he didn't pursue a boy's claim against Edward Dowlan because the boy didn't ask him to.
Peter Blenkiron would be one of Brother Dowlan's next victims.
PETER BLENKIRON: I sat there while he admitted having knowledge of the guy who got me down in '73 and if action had have been taken, then that little boy there wouldn't have had to go through what he went through the year after. It's difficult to sit there with watching the lack of empathy around something that's not only affected my life but so many others.
RACHAEL BROWN: David Ridsdale again.
DAVID RIDSDALE: We hear so much people say things like, "It was a different time, or we didn't know." I don't buy it because it was never a good time to rape children.
RACHAEL BROWN: He'll be part of the group who'll meet with cardinal Pell tomorrow. He says these men might be broken, but they're not beaten.
DAVID RIDSDALE: Don't ever underestimate broken people. Just because you see people in the street and you think there is something wrong with them, stop the judging. You know, pick them up, like we picked each other up.
REPORTER: When you are face to face with George Pell, what will you tell him?
DAVID RIDSDALE: There are a few things we will say but we as a group have made a commitment to ourselves to be diplomatic and dignified.
We feel that the church still fails to under the impact of trauma and what PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) does to people. We do not react the way everyone else does and it has been our loved ones and our friends and family who have had to bear the cost of that.
RACHAEL BROWN: Phil Nagle is one who feels he didn't get what he came for.
PHIL NAGLE: Ballarat survivors came to Rome to hear truth and honesty from George. We feel that we have been deceived and lied to.
RACHAEL BROWN: Stephen Woods hopes the men will get an audience with the Pope, who's reportedly been reading the daily royal commission transcripts.
STEPHEN WOODS: We are really wishing that the Pope intervenes here, the Pope is willing to meet with us, and just hear our concerns, hear the pains of so many thousands of victims in Australia.
RACHAEL BROWN: Just off a plane from Israel, Manny Waks, the whistleblower of sexual abuse in Melbourne's orthodox Jewish community, says he felt compelled to offer his community's support, as this sorry saga isn't unique to Catholicism.
Yet he says cardinal Pell must resign.
MANNY WAKS: If he was aware of some of those issues that went on back then, clearly he's culpable. If he didn't know of what was going on, then he's in competent. If he's not going to do that for the victims and the survivors, then he should do that for the Catholic Church itself.
DAVID MARK: That's the sexual abuse whistleblower Manny Waks ending that report by Rachael Brown.
Originally published at ABC.