- If you’re not a Catholic you are going to get very angry reading this book. If you are a Catholic you’re going to get even angrier.
- Six-time Walkley Award-winning journalist Suzanne Smith digs deep into the clerical club and the administration of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese. The hero of the story is Father Glen Walsh, who refused to remain silent, and who suffered for his 'betrayal' his whole life.
- A nest of ugly, debauched pedophiles were flourishing in the diocese, including the notorious Vince Ryan, and other frequent abusers like John Denham and James Fletcher. It was an absolute disgrace that they were protected from the law for decades by bishops and other priests. This is a story of the wider church’s awakening to the sleazebags in their midst. Particularly the families of the victims. The hierarchy remained ‘belligerent, ignorant and condescending’.
- The author portrays the pious Catholicism of the parishioners exceptionally well. They were loyal, working class families, virtually all of Irish descent who revered and loved their priests. And the Marist Brothers who taught their boys. Or so they thought.
- Glen Walsh wrote a letter to the head of the Marist Brothers for the Sydney Province, Brother Michael Hill, outlining his own abuse by Brother Coman Sykes. After an ‘independent review’ his allegations were deemed ‘not sustained’. He felt he had been double-crossed. Many years later that decision was reversed after another official and independent examination.
- Walsh reported another case, 'Brendan's', direct to the police in defiance of his bishop, Michael Malone, and is told in no uncertain terms, as in 'fuck off', to leave the diocese. Malone never allowed him to return despite representations from other priests and friends.
- Smith tells the story of journalist Joanne McCarthy’s investigations for the Newcastle Herald and her passionate advocacy for a Royal Commission. She focussed on concealment. ‘Maitland-Newcastle would become notorious across Australia and the world for being one of the worst epicentres for child sexual abuse’.
- And the forensic work of Detective Sergeant Kristi Faber, who ‘from 2008 to 2017...went on to convict a large number of priests and brothers with hundreds of charges relating to close to 180 victims.’
- Archbishop Philip Wilson... ‘had been in senior leadership roles for two decades while the abuse had occurred’. He was charged with concealment. Glen Walsh was a Crown prosecutor witness against the archbishop. He knew he would again be ostracised and further isolated in the diocese.
- Walsh’s bishop at the time, and fellow priests, totally deserted him during his serious illness in 2016. His final email to them held nothing back though. He condemned them. Bishop Wright eventually welcomed Glen back to the diocese in February 2017 but in October reversed that decision in light of Glen’s testimony against Archbishop Wilson. ‘He advised me that the presbyterate will never forgive me for exposing them for what they are...’ Glen, already quite sick and frail, took his own life two weeks later. He was 56.
- Smith tells many other stories of abusers and their victims, which are sickening and heartbreaking. She has written a powerful book which I highly recommend.
(Unfortunately this is yet another Australian non-fiction book without an index. Or an author photo. This habit seems to have developed over the last ten years or so, and it's a bad one. Completely unprofessional. What's wrong with Australian publishers that they do this?)
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