All day I have been putting off writing cos I didn't want to rant on and on about the catholic church's methods of cover up and semantics, but the venom just has not subsided.
I read this morning that the great thinker - yeah sarcasm is the poorest for of wit, Christopher Pyne minister for education in Australia has appointed the vice chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Greg Craven, as chairman of the committee investigating all that is wrong with TEACHERS in this country!! And to think, this at the end of a week where the Brisbane courts have been full of stories from a catholic school in Toowoomba, where staff just didn't think it important to report or investigate allegations of molestation and rape. In total 44 complaints were made against Gerard Byrnes who was finally charged and found guilty and is serving 10 years in jail.
I am sick with boiling bile as I hear that again as recently now as 2007 / 2008 the catholics just didn't want to deal with this abuse and so more children have been hurt and raped and abused and IGNORED.
Now I know a number of very fine people who readily admit they are Catholic. These are kind smart wonderful folk who I much admire and enjoy spending time with. We rarely if ever discuss religion, I am sure in no small part, because we all know it would get ugly very quickly.
I do not pretend to understand their beliefs and I am sure they find my complete lack of belief equally puzzling.
And I do not hold them at all responsible for the appalling atrocities committed in catholic institutions by catholic staff. The catholic system must however be seriously flawed at best and disgustingly corrupt at worst, to allow the sickening abuse of so many children over such a long period of time, probably since institutions took hold.
When I see these latest arseholes on the tellie leaving court, I have to fight the very real violent urge to find them and belt the shit out of them with a bat. They are soo bloody blaze about not having protected these kids. 'Oh well, oops I made a miscalculation.' ' I didn't want to believe it.' 'I thought someone else would report it to the police, even though yes I knew it was my legal and professional duty to do so.'
The Principal at the time of the abuse, Terry Hayes was responsible for ignoring the initial complaints, he accepted Byrnes' resignation and then re-hired him as a contract teacher straight away. How is Hayes not complicit in all this?
Anyway I have turned red in the face writing this and my irritation about Mr Pyne's latest appointment has hardly been addressed.
How can anyone think that someone representing an institution so fond of protecting it's good name at the expense of innocent children, is going to come up with a plan to make better teachers?
It clearly does not matter one jot what legislation is in place to protect our children, institutions like the catholic church will always put their own PR ahead of what is morally right.
The cynic in me thinks that maybe these are possible recommendations from Greg Craven's committee.
- Teachers should be smarter about flouting the law.
- Teachers should be tested on their ability to protect the good name of their fellows.
- If fiddling must happen then it would be best to be done in private so there are no witnesses.
- Teachers should NOT believe children.
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