A Samoan woman is the first faith-based care abuse survivor to give evidence at the Royal Commission of Inquiry in the hope of encouraging other Pasifika to come forward.
Frances Tagaloa and her husband rugby great Timo Tagaloa have gone public determined to help change a church that failed families like them.
Tagaloa says it’s been extremely difficult but she has had the full support of her family.
“It is just a normal pacific thing I represent my family coming forward, I wanted to be sure they were ok with that,” she said.
“It is extremely important we need to address these issues, we need to prevent this abuse we need to stop our children from being abused its still happening, who is going to stop them if we don’t.”
The oldest of five children, Frances grew up in Ponsonby, home to many Pacific families in the 1970s.
In her evidence to the Commission of Inquiry she said she went to Sacred Heart Primary, but the repeated abuse happened next door at the Marist Brothers Intermediate school where she would play with a friend after school
She was aged just five to seven years old at the time and named her abuser as Brother Bede Fitton, who is now deceased.
Frances is the first of 25 survivors to give evidence over the next two weeks.
Today counsel for the Catholic Church, Sall McKechnie said the church leaders “express their profound regret and sorry that anyone has experienced harm in the care of the church”.
However, survivors like Tagaloa say they are frustrated by the Catholic Church’s lack of action and accountability over decades.
She told 1 NEWS that she would love some of the inquiry’s recommendations to be about the structure of the Catholic church.
“In the canon law they don’t recognise sexual abuse as a crime they call it an offence against the celibacy of the priest which I just find horrific,” she said.
She says she would love to see transformational change – and abuse needs to be investigated by an independent body instead of within the church itself.
Her words are echoed by the Catholic Survivors Network.
Liz Tonks says the church has had decades to put measures in place and “they can no longer be left to investigate complaints and continue to deny victim survivors the redress they need”.
Murray Heasley also from the Catholic Survivors Network commended the Commission of Inquiry from denying the Catholic Church’s “significant legal resources” demanding a suppression of names.
“We commend the commissions for denying the churches attempt to silence our victim survivors once again – any other outcome would have been outrageous”.
But today Tagaloa, who has been denied a voice so long, was finally given an opportunity to use it.
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