Ballarat deserves answers.
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The Royal Commission into Child sexual Abuse has decided video presentations of evidence from Cardinal George Pell and Ronald Mulkearns will be sufficient under the circumstances. There is no need to underscore the widespread disappointment not only from the long suffering survivors but the community as well about what it had anticipated as a benchmark moment in its pursuit of truth. While it is hoped the technology will suffice in at least having questions answered, there is also the symbolic but profoundly meaningful significance of losing the “moment of truth” from the very town and community where the deceit and cruelty were perpetrated. Bear in mind this is also a community that is taking the first tentative steps towards putting this dark period of history behind it. So symbolism is important, as is the difficult path to rebuilding trust. The danger is the momentum toward that resolution has been lost in this latest blow from the Commission
Healing is a path that cannot be continued down unless the fundamental questions are answered and they have remain unchanged; how and why did this abuse of innocent children happen. The Courier would argue answering this has gone beyond the blaming of individuals. A collective admission and recognition must be the prelude to any kind of resolution and unity.
The first concern in Ballarat is with those left behind; the victims, both those we know and don’t know; their families, friends and associates who have suffered so much and waited so long. But if this is about healing this must also about the whole culture that allowed it to happen because without frank revelations on that the community can never entirely feel confident it could not happen again. That is the indispensable truth on which the future has to be built.
Yet already from the public there are premonitions of half answers and evasion that sow the seeds of lingering distrust and disillusionment. On one hand a community coming to terms with its past; schoolchildren and priests voluntarily tie ribbons to fences in show of community support, and on the other a phalanx of lawyers, an inscrutable hierarchy and the indifference of distance that seem to mock local concerns. The Cardinal has repeatedly maintained his absence is not of his volition and he is willing to help. The public’s may be the error of perception but in the end it is still actions, not intentions, that build perception and the beginnings of trust.