THE funeral last month of Monsignor Patrick Cotter was a ceremony with all the solemn formality that the Catholic Church would be expected to bestow on a respected senior member of its clergy.
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But as subsequent events have shown, an unexpectedly large number of Hunter people have had good reason to feel aggrieved at the official praise inherent in Monsignor Cotter's farewell from this earth.
Their determination to set straight a crooked record has resulted in a series of reports in this newspaper that have been praised by some and criticised by others.
Their importance, beyond the gravity of their subject matter, is the new information that they have brought to light. This new information was a 1975 letter from Monsignor Cotter that confirmed what many had suspected that as a senior member of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle he covered up pedophile priest Vince Ryan.
The Herald's exposure of the Ryan cover-up has distressed some Catholics. Many will be asking why the matter has been brought to the surface again after so many years. The simple answer is that Ryan's victims remain angered and in some cases permanently damaged by Ryan's pedophilia and the church's refusal to face it.
Journalists, for their part, have a responsibility to expose injustices, be they past or present. A matter of this nature, thoroughly investigated and authenticated, must be reported without fear or favour.
Victims need hope
For those people who have come forward since Monsignor Cotter's funeral the matter is clearly not settled. They say the victims feel a strong sense of betrayal. From their perspective, making public the full story of the Ryan cover-up is the best possible defence against such devastating behaviour happening again.
If there is a light at the end of a very dark tunnel for the victims and their families, it is the hope that exposing these crimes and their cover-up will lead the church to act more responsibly in the future. Those who have spoken out have done so in order that no child should again endure the pain and despair that the victims have harboured for decades.
Many of those people who have spoken out have turned to this newspaper as a last resort. In this regard, the diocese has only itself to blame for the sense of betrayal still haunting the victims of Ryan and his ilk.
The church, for its part, says that things have changed, but many will need more evidence than they have seen to accept such assurances.
In a recent statement, the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone, spoke of the "long and difficult days" facing the church. Bishop Malone also referred to the "suspicion of cover-ups [which] hang over Bishop Leo Clarke and myself".
Despite many requests from this newspaper for him to expand on his written statements, Bishop Malone has chosen to stay silent. Silence is not what is needed now. Silence was the problem in the first place.
