Health & Safety

Abuse survivors encouraged to speak as inquiry scope widens

<h6 style&equals;"text-align&colon; right&semi;"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;radionz&period;co&period;nz&sol;authors&sol;phil-pennington" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Phil Pennington<&sol;a>&comma; RNZ Reporter<&sol;h6>&NewLine;<h2>A victim of abuse by a Marist Brother says the expanded Royal Commission is the chance for him and many other Catholic old boys to speak up&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The government has after months of pressure <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;radionz&period;co&period;nz&sol;news&sol;political&sol;375731&sol;religious-institutions-to-be-included-in-state-abuse-inquiry" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">expanded the inquiry into historical abuse<&sol;a> to include faith-based institutions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We need to stand up and be counted because until today&comma; it was looking really&comma; really dire because we were just being isolated and silenced&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Steve Goodlass&comma; who was abused at St Bernard&&num;8217&semi;s College in Lower Hutt in the 1980s&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Suddenly what we&&num;8217&semi;ve got is an opportunity to bring forward our stories &&num;8211&semi; because there are a lot of us&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He was abused by Marist Brother teacher Patrick Bignell in the 1980s&comma; and speaks of at least one other clergyman there at the time who molested boys&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 47-year-old father of four who runs cycle tours in Central Otago&comma; could only watch as the courts in 2015 convicted his abuser for crimes against three other boys&comma; while his own case could not be prosecuted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He tried the church&&num;8217&semi;s own <i>&&num;8216&semi;Path to Healing <&sol;i>but found it sorely wanting&comma; including the total absence of attempts to connect survivors so they could support each other&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I was never satisfied with dealing with the church that there was true change going to be made&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;They really took an approach to isolate and to silence me&comma; and other people as well&period; So the justice that we&&num;8217&semi;ll get in being able to get our stories out there and for people to understand just how big a thing this is&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>He was trying to reach out through St Bernard&&num;8217&semi;s informal Old Boys&&num;8217&semi; network&comma; to get others to speak at the inquiry&comma; to make sure this never happened again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Goodlass hoped the church was sincere in asking to be included in the commission&comma; but also expressed scepticism&colon; &&num;8220&semi;I really hope the church isn&&num;8217&semi;t getting behind this to try and shift the load on to the government&&num;8221&semi;&comma; citing examples in the US of dioceses declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying compensation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another survivor of clerical sex abuse as a child&comma; Grant West&comma; said it was &&num;8220&semi;terrific&&num;8221&semi; the commission had been expanded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He had led <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;radionz&period;co&period;nz&sol;news&sol;national&sol;364957&sol;more-calls-for-including-faith-based-organisations-in-abuse-inquiry" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">a petition for a full inquiry<&sol;a> from his home in Melbourne&comma; as well as leading calls to boycott any inquiry that had a restricted scope&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I&&num;8217&semi;m lifting that boycott&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he told RNZ&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I am going to return and give my evidence to the Royal Commission and I&&num;8217&semi;ve heard from other people now that they are going to attend&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The only sour note was that sports clubs and groups like scouts still were not covered&comma; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference&comma; Patrick Dunn&comma; told <i>Morning Report <&sol;i>he welcomed his Church&&num;8217&semi;s inclusion under the terms of the Royal Commission&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We acknowledge that it is important for those who have experienced abuse to tell their story&&num;8230&semi; and to be believed&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;radionz&period;co&period;nz&sol;national&sol;programmes&sol;morningreport&sol;audio&sol;2018670941&sol;religious-institutions-included-in-abuse-inquiry" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">&&num;8220&semi;We think it &lbrack;the inquiry&rsqb; is a good move&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8211&semi; Patrick Dunn duration 5&colon;42  <&sol;a><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;radionz&period;co&period;nz&sol;national&sol;programmes&sol;morningreport" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">from Morning Report<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><center><audio controls&equals;"controls" data-mce-fragment&equals;"1"><&sol;audio><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Click a link to play audio &lpar;or right-click to download&rpar; in either<br &sol;>&NewLine;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;img&period;scoop&period;co&period;nz&sol;media&sol;audio&sol;1811&sol;mnr&lowbar;20181113&lowbar;0709&lowbar;religious&lowbar;institutions&lowbar;included&lowbar;in&lowbar;abuse&lowbar;inquiry&lowbar;128&period;mp3" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">MP3 format<&sol;a> or in <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;img&period;scoop&period;co&period;nz&sol;media&sol;audio&sol;1811&sol;mnr&lowbar;20181113&lowbar;0709&lowbar;religious&lowbar;institutions&lowbar;included&lowbar;in&lowbar;abuse&lowbar;inquiry&lowbar;128&period;ogg" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">OGG format<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&sol;center><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; the bishop questioned Mr Goodlass&&num;8217&semi; &&num;8220&semi;perception&&num;8221&semi; of being isolated by the Church&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I was sorry to hear him say he had the experience of being isolated or silenced&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;That came as a bit of a surprise to me&period; I certainly think that&&num;8217&semi;s regrettable if that did happen or if that&&num;8217&semi;s his perception of what happened&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said he had no idea how many priests had been abusers in New Zealand and the extent of the abuse&comma; but he said 7 percent of priests &&num;8211&semi; the figure the Australian Royal Commission came to &&num;8211&semi; &&num;8220&semi;sounded rather high&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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