Sex Abuse Victim Told to 'Go to Hell' by Catholic Archbishop

In what I suspect is a glimpse of the Roman Catholic Church's true attitude towards the victims of sexual abuse by priests, Australian Archbishop Denis Hart told a woman who had been sexually abused by a priest to "go to hell, bitch" when the woman was demanding redress for abuse she suffered at the hands of a priest after his suspension as a priest in the 1990s for abusing another woman had been overturned. Although the woman could have formatted her demands in a better fashion, what truly peeved the good Archbishop was that "his privacy had been significantly breached as a result of the early morning visit" by the abuse victim. In my opinion, the good archbishop has his priorities seriously f*cked up, but then with most of the members of the Catholic Church hierarchy I have met in the past, their egos were huge, it was all about them, and they demanded that the laity kiss their asses. Here are a few highlights from The Age:

*

MELBOURNE Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart told a woman who had been sexually abused by a priest to "go to hell, bitch" in conduct labelled appalling by a Victorian magistrate. Archbishop Hart later apologised to the woman in the Melbourne Magistrates Court for what magistrate Anne Goldsborough described as ''appalling words of abuse''.

*

Court documents confirm the archbishop's outburst after he was granted an intervention order against the woman, who had pursued him over her abuse by priest Barry Whelan in 2001. The magistrate said that a ''very, very angry'' Archbishop Hart had told the woman to ''go to hell bitch'' after she knocked on his door at 1.20am. . .

*

The magistrate found that the archbishop was angry that his privacy had been significantly breached as a result of the early morning visit. But Ms Goldsborough rejected the archbishop's lawyer's claim that the victim's abuse was not a relevant factor in the intervention order court case.

*

The Age reported yesterday that a St Patrick's Cathedral newsletter last month named Barry Whelan as a ''living treasure'', despite the church's own investigator finding that he had abused several woman. The archdiocese has said this was a mistake and has apologised.

*

The Age investigation into the Melbourne Catholic Church's handling of sexual abuse claims has also reported: . . . . Comments from Melbourne Vicar General Les Tomlinson that there is a church sex abuse ''victims' industry'' that seeks to exploit victims to make money - which the Archbishop yesterday said ''weren't helpful''.

*

As I have said before, there is no real contrition on the part of the Church hierarchy and that absent a total house cleaning of bishops and cardinals who covered up for and/or enabled predatory priests, the stage continues to be set for further instances of abuse no matter what blather the hierarchy puts out. The hierarchy is rotten to the core.