“I have a voice, and I intend to use it,” writes Keith Thomas Davis, Survivor of childhood sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
“My initial experience with my claim drove me to the edge. They will not do that to me again. I have recently found out I have a new avenue of appeal and I will not be silent. That would be a disservice to myself, to other Survivors, and to those who could no longer bear the pain, and are no longer with us…My heart and resolve beats strongly for them.”
(Many thanks, Keith, for this guest post for 2020socialjustice. May your voice resound in all the corners it needs to reach…Joan Beckwith.)

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When politicians exhibit the same level of moral maturity as a pre-kinder child, alarm bells ring about our sociopolitical health.

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There are no excuses for child abuse, and Tom Keneally makes none in his novel about pedophilia in the Catholic Church. Keneally’s insights into the perpetrator mindset are disturbing and he also illustrates why it was never going to work for the Church to investigate itself. His narrative seems a plausible fit with reality, although views on this may differ depending on personal experience.

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If it’s forced it’s not ‘treatment’ and it’s not ‘caring’. Restraint is inevitably forced, and children in psychiatric care are more likely to be restrained than adults. A mother who contributes to this post explains how damaging this can be for already traumatised children. Restraint is also a poor response to safety concerns, and the ongoing challenge is to develop alternative possibilities…Joan Beckwith.

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Words come with baggage; some more than others; “sinful” more than most; and “illegal” is fast catching up, at least in its application to asylum seekers in Australia. This, anyway, is where my thoughts wandered as I watched “Philomena” at the cinema recently … Joan Beckwith.

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Some priests apparently claim to believe that only sex with women violates their vows of celibacy. The challenge for the royal commission is to cut through the layers of deceit, delusion, hypocrisy and power…Joan Beckwith.

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