Christ Church Cathedral, MontrealDecember 1, 2006
Bishop Barry Clarke
bishops.office@montreal.anglican.ca
Dear Sir,
Below I’ve pasted a startling message received from a Bockus Victim.
Destroyed as a child, the Anglican Church never contacted him in the ensuing decades. He is nervous and reluctant to contact you now.
Many Victims have come in trust to me, balanced precariously on a delicate wire, lives destroyed, now in their mid fifties or early sixties, seeking peace. Sadly, for many I have been the only light in half a century. This is SO, SO, SO wrong!
Not surprisingly, he is the only Victim who has suggested going back to the Church for help. The rest detest the Anglican Church of Canada.
This is no reflection on you, but I share his fear. There have been suicides already. I do not want to hear of one more. There do not have to be any more suicides if your Church accepts responsibility.
Can the Church do everything right for this man and all the others? Many need and want “OUTSIDE” counseling. Has a decision been reached to fully cover that cost? Bill Knight is still waiting for an answer.
In that regard, I am appalled the Primate told Bill that the settling of Bockus cases is your problem.
It is not just a Bockus problem. You can be assured that an increasing HUGE number of cases are about to be exposed across this country. Is the Primate guided by legal or administrative advice? It certainly was not a moral decision, as voted in a poll our web site has conducted. 100% of the voters feel the Primate has reacted immorally.
Leaving each case for each Bishop is going to prove to be an Anglican administrative time bomb of nuclear proportions. It is neither right nor fair to individual Bishops.
This is about to blow up on the Church, coast to coast. There were many pedophile Anglican priests.
Hasn’t the time arrived for the Anglican Church of Canada to accept responsibility, set a National policy acceptable to all Victims of pedophile priest abuse, find them through a National search programme, and heal them?
The time has come to do God’s will and work as stated in the Lord’s Prayer: “do unto others”. I cannot understand how the Primate can recite that prayer at least twice daily and not exercise his leadership right.
Sincerely,
Mike Rilstone
(Victim's letter pasted here)
