www.peterellis.co.nz
: seeking justice for Peter Ellis : mail to: [email protected]
Accusations of Abuse in
Institutions
Index: Home Page Peter Ellis
Index: Accusations in Institutions
The Press
July 3, 2002
Catholic sex abuse? News to me
by Mike Crean
Not
all Catholic clergy are child-sex abusers. I had close relationships with many
priests and never knew of sex abuse.
From the age of eight, I regularly donned the long black soutane
and frilly white surplice of an altar boy in our parish church.
It was the 1950s. Latin was still the language of Catholic liturgy. My first
memory of being alone with a priest is of learning the Latin responses which I
would have to make in the Mass. Father Tom O'Dowd sat me down and drilled me in
the Latin, session after session, until I could recite the words faultlessly.
Never did he make an improper advance or say anything of concern. Granted, I
was so innocent, I might not have recognised it if he had.
I went on a roster with five other boys, assisting at services for Fr O'Dowd
and Father John O'Brien. Often, a priest and I would be the only people in the
church for early morning weekday
If I was too naive to judge behaviour, then I can say that none of the other
altar boys, whom I knew well, mentioned or hinted at anything either. Not even
at the annual altar boys' picnic at Leithfield Beach,
when the priests took us in their cars for a much anticipated day out, did anything
happen.
Our next priest was Fr John Murphy. He became a family friend. He had no
housekeeper, so came often for meals at my sister's and brother-in-law's place
and to talk racing with dad. Dad would place his bets for him at the TAB.
Fr Murphy took a shine to me and I often accompanied him on trips around the
vast Hawarden- Amberley parish in his dashing lime-
green Zephyr. Nothing ever happened.
I used to mow his lawns -- nothing happened. When he played the final of the
local golf club's men's championship, I caddied for him. Still
nothing.
Fr Murphy took us altar boys to the Industries Fair each year. He took three of
us to a rugby test. All the time, never a word from anyone of
inappropriate behaviour. Not a whiff.
Today you would say I fitted the profile of boy sex-abuse victims. I was
vulnerable. My mother had died of cancer. I lived with my father, who worked
long hours and didn't cope very well (although we went to my sister's and
brother-in-law's for main meals).
I trusted Fr Murphy, as I did the priests before him, totally. My family
trusted them totally. That trust was never betrayed.
For family reasons, I was packed off to board at St Bede's
College in form two. There, 250 boys lived side-by-side with 30 priests of the
Society of Mary (Marist Fathers).
In my six years at St Bede's, I never heard or saw
any inkling of improper behaviour by priests. Again, I might have been too
naive to notice but, talking with many old boys, some of them disaffected with
the school for various reasons, I have never found any indication of sexual
abuse.
The nearest to it was a half- hearted rumour that a particular priest was
"fond of little boys". It was never substantiated.
It wasn't as if we were slow to criticise the priests. Occasional tales of
drinking exploits swept through the school like wildfire. We disliked the way
some priests fawned on wealthy parents.
Priests had opportunities for abuse. Boarders would visit them in their rooms
for help with study or spiritual matters. We had a roster for serving at Mass
in tiny chapels up to an hour before the rest of the boarders were roused from
their beds. A priest was in charge of the infirmary, in which, at most times,
one or two boys would be in bed for a day or two with some minor illness. The
priests who handled this responsibility were above reproach.
Of course, we were caned, but it was "all above board". One priest
employed the sadistic practice of rapping knuckles with a solid wooden baton
while checking homework. However, after talking to ex-students of State
schools, I think we were treated no worse than they.
The priests were generally caring and developed an atmosphere of manly
comradeship among us. Some were plainly pious, some were more men-of-the-world.
Which does not mean sexual abuse never occurred. But
if it did, I would be deeply shocked to hear of it.