Survivors of the Catholic Church Demand Justice.wmv

Alan Baker, who works for CatholicCare, has revealed how he unsuccessfully fought church officials for three years to improve the support given to victims of clergy abuse. Mr Baker's fight is revealed in a series of emails sent between 2008 and 2011 that detail his lobbying of senior church officials — including Victorian CatholicCare CEO Father Joe Caddy, Melbourne episcopal vicar for social justice, Tony Kerin and now former Catholic Social Services Australia chief Frank Quinlan — for CatholicCare to take a support and advocacy role for victims. Mr Baker's story comes as a Melbourne victim of sexual abuse, Mairead Ashcroft, spoke out about her battle to hold to account the Catholic brother who abused her as a child in Victoria in the 1970s. Despite admitting his conduct to church authorities in 1999, Brother Bernard Hartman has never been interviewed by police and continues to work as a brother in America, where church officials have put him on a "safety plan" to keep him away from "children, adolescents or vulnerable women". In July 2008, Mr Baker first emailed his boss, Father Caddy, about his ''deep anger at how terribly badly the church is responding to the clergy abuse issue''. Mr Baker told Father Caddy the church dealt with victims of abuse in an overly legalistic, intimidating and often closed-shop manner - an approach he compared to the conduct of big tobacco firms - rather then utilising the church's welfare resources to offer a more compassionate and contrite <b>...</b>