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Ann's Book, "Say Sorry"
by Debb Saturday, July 04, 2009,
I have just finished reading Ann's book (borrowed from local library - check to make sure your locallibrary buys a copy).
It has left lots swirling around, many questions and great admiration for Ann and also for Fr Doyle, who has written a hard-hitting summary of what the problem is. He covers all the possible factors, but, in the final analysis it is all due to clericalism, he concludes. Reckon we will get that changed in the Year for the Priest?
Several things I want to say to Ann:
First, you do have an angel on your shoulder. Nothing else can explain how you survived such treatment. Ann, despite all that they did to you, and your own feelings of low self-worth, you come across as a very alive person, who somehow refused to give up on yourself or life. You are a beautiful soul and they failed when they tried to break you (although I know that at times you feel very broken and still suffer a lot).
I cheered when you went to the police to complain about your abuse, but was not surprised when they did nothing. Nobody did anything back in those days, whether the abuse happened in the church's institutions, in state institutions or in private homes.
I have been thinking about the punishment they gave you, what to call it.
Abuse? Yes, they abused you, physically and mentally and spiritually. Bullying? Yes, especially the older girls in the institution. But there is another word, that covers the use of repeated cruel treatment with a clear purpose, in your case to get the "devil" out of you - torture. There is more I could say, but most I want to say I admire your courage and your refusal to give up. Debb
By desi, Australia, Thursday, July 23, 2009,
I have just finished reading 'Say Sorry' and found it to be a very, very moving experience (also very disturbing, at times difficult to continue the reading).I must agree with Debb's words to Ann....'I admire your courage and your refusal to give up'.
Ann, I would make the book compulsory reading for EVERY Bishop.
by Bill Dowsley 'Wombeyan, NSW', Saturday, July 04, 2009,
I shall be more blunt, Debb.
The 'torturers' were all gutless, as are all of their contemptible kind.
Anne is a woman of great courage.
by Francis Saturday, July 04, 2009,
Ann, I profoundly join in what Debb and Bill have written. The life we have as one is so powerful and does wonders through the very oneness it is.
Francis, I'm happy.
Brian Coyne <editor@catholica.com.au>;
I have been deeply moved by what you have written and how you
have written it. My respect for you has always been strong from when
you first appeared all those years ago now on the old CNDB. in 2001
be plenty more of them who are going to be envious now of your "success"
I really have to say though that it is even deeper now having read your story
from beginning to end. With Fr Tom Doyle's endorsement and more academic comment
on top of all that you have written this is extremely powerful testimony.
It's ironic given all that you have been put through, all the education that was denied you,
all the natural justice that was denied you, that you emerge out of all this as
one of the best models of what Jesus Christ came into the world to teach us all.
That IS the promise of Christ: the first shall be last — and the last shall be first.
Your own sense of justice is awesome. I am equally impressed by Brian,
and all the other people whom you have attracted to support you —
your ex-policeman friend, your editor Fiona, Tom Doyle.
That is all testimony to the strength and beauty of your character.
Don't lose any sleep over the [name deleted]-type characters. There will
and they will attempt to attack.
Even Bishop Geoffrey Robinson has had to put up with that from within
the highest ranks in the Vatican bureaucracy. What will best protect you against
all that is precisely what you have been doing all along: "seeking truth".
There is an old Latin phrase for it — the motto of my old school, taken from
St Thomas Aquinas: "Veritas Vincit — Truth Conquers". It does.
You help prove it in the most marvellous of ways. I can't underline enough
how important the work is that you Have been engaged in.
This is worth a thousand degrees in Divinity at the Gregorian. Yours truly is
"the story that Jesus came to model to the world" it's the Garden of Gesthemane
story all over again written in the pain you have experienced over an entire lifetime.
You remind me of my own mother who was also one who "stuck to her tasks",
was "guided ultimately only by truth alone" and who always claimed to have
"her two feet stuck firmly on the ground".
You do have enormous strength of character also.
Quietly and patiently stick at what you're doing. I do have a real sense
that you are going to "succeed" in a spectacular way and find the justice
and that deep sense of peace and a sense of overwhelming fulfilment of
the value of your life and all that you have been put through. Christ invites
us to transform our pains into joy and love.
You may not be able to fully realise it at the moment but effectively
that is what you and Brian have been doing.
Hang in there. There might be a few more glitches until you find the right
publisher and distributor combination. I suspect even if you found a publisher
tomorrow that it won't be until February or March next year before a book is
finally available for sale in shops.
Then, if it's as successful as we hope it might be, it might be a year or two
before you begin to see any significant financial return.
You'll possibly need a little more patience yet.