Editorial: Focus must be on all abusers

FOR four agonising years, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has, in both closed and public sessions, heard some of the most harrowing stories one can imagine.

FOR four agonising years, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has, in both closed and public sessions, heard some of the most harrowing stories one can imagine.

At a cost of $500 million the commission took testimony from 8000 survivors of abuse, covering some 4000 institutions and resulting in 2500 allegations being reported to police.

The commission has delivered its final 17-volume report. Picture: Jeremy Piper/Australian Government Royal Commission via AP

In the process, virtually every major organisation to work with children was examined, from state-run facilities such as the Parramatta Training School for Girls to orphanages and foster homes run by the Anglicans, Catholics and the Salvos.

Many of the commission’s 189 recommendations sound like common sense.

The report handed down yesterday suggests everything from the creation of a National Office for Child Safety to websites and helplines to report abuse to better rules around the record-keeping related to any and all incidents of abuse real or potential.

Commissioner Justice Peter McClellan (left) shakes hands with Governor-General Peter Cosgrove at the release of the report. Picture: Jeremy Piper/Australian Government Royal Commission via AP

These seem like sensible ideas, and while nothing can be done to truly make whole the lives of the thousands who testified and many thousands of other victims, even the awareness raised and the discussion generated by the commission’s process has shed light on the shadows where predators were once able to lurk with impunity.

But care must be taken when it comes to some of the recommendations, which would seem to target the Catholic Church in particular.

While the sectarian divides of old are long past, there are still many who resent the power and authority of the Church and will use this report as a cudgel to attack it.

Cardinal George Pell outside St Mary's Cathedral today. Picture: AAP

Some of the recommendations, including calling for bishops to write to Rome asking the Pope to make priestly celibacy voluntary seem like an overreach of secular power and a narrowing of focus on one institution because its traditional doctrines run contrary to the liberal spirit of the day.

Because if sexual abuse is about power, it does not matter whether the perpetrators are Catholic or any other faith — or none.

Recent months have seen Hollywood exposed as a viper’s nest of predators who have for decades used their sway and influence to take advantage of others and silence victims, and the movie industry is as secular and godless a business as one can ­imagine.

The sad fact is child abuse knows no denomination, and it will not be stamped out if we focus on the faults of one faith’s adherents.

MONUMENT TO HEALING

Three years ago Sydney was united by the Lindt Cafe siege, a horrifying event that struck at the heart of our city and cost the lives of Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson.

But while the deranged acts of Man Monis were an example of humanity at its worst, the response of our city showed Sydney at its best.

The sea of flowers mourning the loss of Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson three years ago. Picture: AFP

The construction site of the memorial, which will be unveiled today. Picture: John Appleyard

Today a memorial will be unveiled to that day, and the sea of flowers that blanketed Martin Place in its wake.

Featuring 400 flower symbols laid into Martin Place’s granite pavement, it will be an enduring testament to our city’s ability to mourn, but also to heal.

TOO MUCH TOGETHERNESS

Middle-aged homeowners, rejoice!

Over the past decade your property has probably doubled in value, maybe you’ve picked up an investment property along the way, and on paper at least, you’re sitting pretty.

But there’s a catch: Your kids have not left home, you’re still having arguments over everything from politics to loading the dishwasher, and you’ve got no idea what to do about your 30-year-old daughter and her boyfriend, who keep breaking curfew.

Welcome to the new reality for a growing number of Sydney families.

As the Saturday Telegraph reports, the high cost of housing has led to more adult children never flying the nest, instead choosing to stick it out in their childhood bedrooms as they save for a ­deposit.

And if parents have it bad, the kids arguably have it worse: According to a study by St George Bank, adult children are still squirming through the uncomfortable bits on family movie nights, being hectored about staying out late, and forced to hang out with their embarrassing oldies’ friends.

Who knows? One side effect of a cooling housing market may be cooling off a few family fights, too.

Originally published as Editorial: Focus must be on all abusers