'
For if you love those
who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? Even the tax collectors
do as much, do they not? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are
you doing anything exceptional? Even the pagans do as much, do they not? You
must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
Matthew
5:46-48
Which teacher among us has not had an
aching heart when confronted with a child in our class who has been neglected, emotionally,
physically or sexually abused (and the statistics themselves are numbingly
appalling, see: Child
abuse and neglect statistics). Who among us has not been shaken by the
catalogue of crime and betrayal within our Church, our community and our
families, nor felt the shame, the terror and helplessness as victim after
victim dislodged the inexorable lifelong pain before courts, commissions,
committees, bearing the brutality of their perpetrators, the cross examination
and dismissal by administrators, bishops, principals, departmental heads,
judges and politicians.
There can be no turning back, no
consolation, no resolution that will undo a child's worst nightmare. The damage
is done.
The statistics don't lie. In Australia in
2014-2015 there 56,423 substantiated cases of harm caused to children (there
were 320,169 notifications). Despite the Royal Commission and universal public
awareness the numbers grow year by year.
Jesus' review of the Levitical precept - You must
love your neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 19:18) - is the most critical challenge for Christians, for all human beings
everywhere. It is no hardship to love those who love you. And yet the 1.38
million notifications to child safety authorities over 5 years clearly indicate
our failure to love our own children. Then we have elder abuse, abuse of those
with disabilities, spousal abuse and the self-abuse of alcohol, drugs,
self-harm. We struggle to love ourselves sometimes.
Has Jesus
set the bar too high? Is our aim to be perfect like our heavenly Father
unreachable? Much scholarship has been put into discerning Luke's compassionate and Matthew's perfect. To be perfect, is of course, to
be like the Father, and that of course means to be compassionate. Is it so hard
to love and care for those in our families? Is it really too much of an ask to
expect us to be interested in or concerned about others without thinking we are
being busybodies or is it too onerous a duty to speak up and speak out when we
see or know cruelty being metered out to the vulnerable and voiceless.
Australia's
various parliaments have legislated teachers and others a mandatory
responsibility to report, and while this is admirable, one could ask why giving
a hoot about others had to be legislated for. The Church's failure to prevent, halt, fix and accept responsibility is
symptomatic of our communal loss of humanity.
For those
who stand before a classroom of students, the call to be perfect, to be
compassionate, to be responsive to and sensitive to the pain these students may
carry is truly loving one's neighbour. Don't for a second underestimate the
impact you may have or the difference you might make.
Peter Douglas
The horror of the past
by Francis Sullivan, Truth Justice
and Healing Council
The release of the data this week
into the extent of clerical child sexual abuse in the Australian Catholic
Church has been both a statistical and spiritual ground zero for millions of
people around Australia and around the world.
It has had a devastating impact on
the survivors of abuse, on ordinary Catholics and on the broader community.
As I said in my statement to the
Commission on Monday the numbers are shocking, tragic, indefensible and an
indictment on both the men who perpetrated the abuse and the leaders at the
time who covered up these crimes and turned their heads.
Much has been said and written
about the data since Monday so there is little I can add, but to reiterate the
clear message that while words are important the commitment of the Catholic
Church in Australia to correcting the appalling failures of the past can only
be measured through actions and continued vigilance.
We must continue to acknowledge
the past, to accept responsibility, to understand the damage that has been done
to survivors, to make the changes and to work tirelessly to ensure the abuse
never happens again.
10 February
2017
Click here to read to find the Church's response to the Royal Commission that was read to the Commission by Francis Sullivan on 6 February 2017.
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