An apology by the Prime Minister and the Governor General of Australia

MEDIA RELEASE:

 

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 2009

The Prime Minister of Australia on wife beating and rape.

"Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia - under no circumstances," Mr Rudd said.

"Australia will not tolerate these sort of remarks. They don't belong in modern Australia, and he should stand up, repudiate them and apologise."

The Prime Minister of Australia on children sexually abused and raped by Catholic clergy.

"This is a matter for the church and I respect the internal judgements of the church. I don’t stand outside the church and provide them with public lectures in terms of how they should behave..."

It is with regret that there is a need to seek a public apology in regards the serious breaches of the sworn oaths of both the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd and the Governor General of Australia, Quentin Bryce.

On 17 July 2008 the Prime Minister responded to a question posed by David Speers of SKY News.

SPEERS: Just quickly Prime Minister your meeting the Pope today. The apology issue, the victims of sex abuse within the church. How important is an apology from the Pope in your view?

COMMENTS "I respect the internal judgements of the church" Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Which part of the internal judgements of the church does he respect? Is it the cover-up of the sexual abuse of thousands of Australian children by unregulated sexually abusive priests? or is it the abuse of the rights to fair compensation and justice for those who have been abused? The facts are there for all to see yet our Prime Minister blindly supports the greatest and most obvious religious failure in our history. The involvement of the church in the genocide of children in Canada, the global scale of the clergy abuse issue, the global failure of the church to know how to develop and provide the very structures it preaches are its fundamental beliefs. Its failure is evident, obvious and clearly recognised yet our government and our leaders continue to act as mindless enablers and supporters of the failures and the abuses. The Catholic church is recognised as a failed religion and those who proudly call themselves Christians do not include the catholic church when they speak of Christianity for no Christian supports the catholic church response to the clergy abuse crisis. Only a corrupt, tainted or affected Prime Minister could remain silent in face of the obvious.   No person supports the current response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis by the Catholic church. Supporting the church has only legitimised and enabled more of its failures and more of its crimes. Kevin, if you fail to raise your hand in protest then you should acknowledge that you are a part of the problem. Our Governments failure to address this issue speaks loudly of leadership qualities - qualities which are lacking in basic human decency. The Prime Ministers silence enables the continuation of these human rights abuses and actively denies Australian people the right and the opportunity to provide justice for all their fellow Australians. It is a morally corrupt action to turn away from those globally recognised to have been denied their rights and justice. These crimes stare our politicians and leaders in the face yet they remain silent and inactive. What kind of people are they? The lack of action provides support to a failed church heirachy. The world sees and acknowledges that the church is unable to provide a just and humanitarian response. It is unable to treat in a humanitarian way those it has injured, they are further injured by the failure of their leaders to act as a fellow human being. History and our folk lore already tell the tale of an affected and tainted Prime Minister who failed the people of Australia. A Prime Minister who daily dashes the hopes of thousands of families each and every day that you turn your eyes away from this problem.

PM: This is a matter for the church and I respect the internal judgements of the church. I don't stand outside the church and provide them with public lectures in terms of how they should behave. I've noted carefully what his Holiness has said in the United States. Obviously that was a source of great comfort and healing in the United States. I'm like all Australians very much looking forward to what the Pope has to say here in Australia as well, as I am to my own conversation with the Pope later this morning.

reference: PM.Gov.au - interview  http://www.pm.gov.au/media/Interview/2008/interview_0363.cfm
https://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/release/transcript-16017

The Prime Ministers words leave no doubt that an apology by the Pope and the sexual abuse of individual Australians by Catholic clergy are clearly matters for the Catholic church.

Since this unfortunate response I have sought a retraction and an apology from the Prime Minister, however to this time no response has been forthcoming in that regard.

I have also communicated with the Governor General seeking a retraction, apology and intervention, however her response has been that protocol does not permit her to intervene.

No further responses to subsequent communications to both the Prime Minister and the Governor General have been received to this date.

As an Australian I believe that both the Prime Minister and the Governor General have through their actions failed the people of Australia and in doing so have breached their sworn oaths to truly serve the Commonwealth of Australia, her land and her people.

In the Prime Ministers instance this failure is evident through his deferral of the criminal matters of the sexual abuse of citizens of Australia committed in Australia to the Pope as head of the Catholic Church or as the head of a foreign nation.

The Governor General also failed to truly serve the Commonwealth of Australia, her land and her people through failing to uphold her sworn oath to the people of Australia and to intervene when made aware of the circumstance.

Those many Australians who have been subjected to sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church as well as ordinary Australians find this an abhorrent action; an action which breaches the principals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our concept of Australia as a just and fair nation.

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia and the sworn oaths of office of both the Prime Minister and the Governor General simply do not give them the right to delegate or trade to an external entity the rights of individual Australians due to the nature of the crime committed against them.

The perceived right by the Prime Minister for the Catholic Church to deal with sexual abuse victims in whatever manner it chooses is a clear act of abandonment of the principals of jurisprudence and the democratic principals we live by.

These actions do put the right, the responsibility and the authority of the Catholic Church and or the head of a foreign nation before the rights of the people and the law of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Australians have the understanding that the law of The Commonwealth is our ruling law and they expect our Prime Ministers and Governor Generals to uphold that right for each and every Australian without exception.

Our Constitution simply does not provide the power or the right to delegate or trade the legal rights of Australians to an external authority such as the Catholic Church or the Vatican State simply because they have been sexually abused by a member of the Catholic clergy.

In doing as he has done the Prime Minister has placed the rights of the Catholic Church above the Constitutional right of every individual Australian and that his actions do require a public retraction and clarification as well as a public apology by both the Prime Minister and the Governor General as the only appropriate manner to rectify the continuation of these unethical and un-Constitutional actions else they should both be brought to account for their abandonment of their sworn oaths to the people of the Commonwealth of Australia.


John A. Brown

My Broken Society

john@mybrokensociety.com

Not your goods to trade!

 

24/01/2009

Dear Benedict,

I find the opportunity to communicate via Vatican radio, YouTube and other avenues recently established as a breath of fresh air which can only lead to a better understanding and a more peaceful and just world.

On your recent visit to Australia you spoke of the clergy abuse issue; it is that matter which causes me to write.

At the head of your Vatican Radio it reads "The voice of the Pope and the Church in dialogue with the world". As a past victim of clergy abuse I would like to take the opportunity afforded to establish an avenue of communication with the church in both my own regard and in regards others who have experienced similar abuses. We find that on a universal and on a global basis that we as individuals and very often our families and our children are denied our human rights and our right to justice and fair treatment under the laws of our respective lands as well as in the manner taught by your Church. That this does occur is plain and obvious for all who care to look, to all who attempt to understand or to those who seek a just, humanitarian or Christian response from your Church.

The litany of these abuses and the subsequent failures are found across our entire planet and in each instance where there is some public debate the Church and your bishops are regularly condemned due to their inabilty to provide either a legally just outcome, a morally just outcome as taught by your Church or a Christian outcome. This as you are aware causes all who are involved endless pain and the very existence of these circumstances permits the greatest degree of harm on an individual and on a global basis to continue and singularly engenders the greatest degree of social discordance and human rights abuses experienced on a country level and is the greatest single cause of the significant anger, disgust and at times hatred expressed against your Church, your bishops and Catholics in general. Hatred and anger and disgust which your Church brings upon itself through its own universal failures.

Since your visits to the United States and Australia where you raised the subject of the failure of your bishops to deal with this issue in an appropriate and humane manner they have steadfastly refused to release documentation (except when demanded under the law of the country) which can firstly tell us all of the extent of the problem and provide the basis of the understanding required to develop and implement a Christian and humanitarian response. They have failed to act in accord with the teachings of the Church, the teachings of Jesus Christ and very often in defiance of the spirit of the laws of a country as well as continuing to fail on a human rights level.

As you would well be aware the numbers are staggering despite the majority of victims remaining silent about their abuse due to the lack of support and the injurious manner in which the Church responds to their claims.

In the United States estimates take the number there beyond 100,000 children with a cost against your Church of some $10,000,000,000 to $15,000,000,000 in that country with only a small percentage of outstanding cases having been heard. In Canada the Church has been implicated in the genocide of some 50,000 Native American children as well as tens of thousands of non-Native American children; these as in all other countries are mostly children raised within your own Catholic faith.

In Ireland your Church is unable to ensure the safety of children, your bishops are unable to provide and implement proper safety standards nor is it able to provide the justice and healing your bishops and priests preach of from their pulpits nor does it provide the just and compassionate outcomes sought by countless of your own Catholic people.

It seems that in each locality examined; Canada, Mexico, United States, The Philipines, Australia, New Zealand, Europe the failure is universal and comprehensive and plainly in opposition to the teachings of your Church.

Your Church has failed in the past and continues to fail on a global basis in regards the treatment of those abused by your clergy. While such a state continues to exist around the globe it can be clearly said that this is not in the manner of the teaching of Jesus Christ and as such your Churchs' representation of itself as a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ must be brought into question as no Christian respects the current response of the Catholic Church to the clergy abuse issue.

Countless people across the globe petition and beg your leaders, priests and bishops for a change and for your Church to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ yet your princes of God ignore them and deny them faith, justice and peace.

Benedict, your Church, for the sake of humanity must act humanely and justly or forever move on and be seen as the greatest religious failure in the history of mankind.

I have made many attempts to establish a dialogue in regards this matter with bishops and priest across the globe only to be met with silence and the failures inherent in the above. My attempts to communicate and to establish a proper representative dialogue with the Church or instruments of the Church have failed to progress and I am left with this global and public plea for you to take the lead in Christs name and begin that dialogue and communication.

I look forward to being a participant in that process and to taking a role in helping to establish the restoration of dignity and the provision of healing and a sense of justice to all those affected by these atrocities.



with regards

John A Brown

john@mybrokensociety.com



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