OPINION: On a recent Monday morning I sat at the press desk in the
Wellington District Court and watched as a former Catholic priest was
sentenced to six years and seven months in prison for historical sex
offences.
Peter Joseph Hercock left the priesthood in the 1980s. He is 72 now, and married with a son. But in the 1970s he was a chaplain and counsellor at Sacred Heart Girls' College in Lower Hutt. The four women who pursued complaints against him were then pupils in their early teens. They were grappling with personal problems or came from troubled home environments – sometimes both.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/80039052/the-catholic-church-needs-to-move-on-from-archaic-celibacy-rule
Peter Joseph Hercock left the priesthood in the 1980s. He is 72 now, and married with a son. But in the 1970s he was a chaplain and counsellor at Sacred Heart Girls' College in Lower Hutt. The four women who pursued complaints against him were then pupils in their early teens. They were grappling with personal problems or came from troubled home environments – sometimes both.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/80039052/the-catholic-church-needs-to-move-on-from-archaic-celibacy-rule
These three clowns have obviously never talked to a victim or even read a responsible professional article about the impact of child abuse. Also, there have been a number of 75 year old victims who have filed cases and been successful because there has in fact been evidence. Leddy does not know that even if a victim is 75 or 85 or 95, a vile crime was committed against him and the scars remain and grow more painful and destructive with the passage of time.
The opponents of this bill, such as Tim Dolan and the other mitered wizards, deny the fact that all it does is allow people entrance to the court house. It does not guarantee a successful case nor does it waive the evidentiary requirements for victims.
The only real opposition is the Catholic Bishops who are not, by the way, THE Catholic Church. They could care less about justice, available evidence, sex abuse in schools etc. They are concerned about one thing: the continued exposure of their failure and the failure of their predecessors to protect children and their criminal and sinful enabling of perpetrators.
The bishops' crusade against the bill and against sex abuse victims in general is narcissistic, selfish, unChristian and anti-Catholic.
They have conveniently forgotten that the Church which they all claim they love and support, does not stop with the bishops and clergy but is made up of the victims, their loved ones and those concerned for justice. So...who are the bishops and their cheer leaders hurting by their grand standing and dishonest tactics? The Church!
http://www.silive.com/opinion/danielleddy/index.ssf/2016/06/cusick_lanza_are_voices_of_rea.html#lf_comment=521390741