Hell on the Way to Heaven : An Australian Mother's Love - The Power of the Catholic Church, and a Fight for Justice over Child Sexual Abuse

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9781741669527
• ISBN10: 1741669529
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2010-10-22
• Publisher: Random House Australia

Summary

This is the harrowing, true story of a mother's struggle for justice. Chrissie and Anthony Foster were like any other young suburban family, raising their three daughters, Emma, Katie and Aimee in a quiet spot and educating them with what they hoped were the right values. In Chrissie's case, these values were based on her Catholic faith; when she married Anthony, not a religious man, they both committed to bringing up their children in the faith, which included attending Catholic schools. Carefully driving her children to school each day, Chrissie could not have known that the stranger-danger she feared lurked not on the streets, but in the presbytery attached to the school. There, an evil man dwelled whom the Church knew to be a long-term paedophile, moving him from parish to parish in order to avoid his career of sexual assault on children becoming public. This was Father Kevin O'Donnell. First one, then two of their beautiful girls fell victim to the after-effects of O'Donnell's crimes against them as small children. Chrissie and Anthony Foster began a battle to find out the truth of what had happened, and how it was that the very Church which promised to love and protect their children could slam the doors shut on them. Instead, the Church offered silence, lies, denials, broken promises and threats, until one day the Bag Man arrived ... Taking legal action against the Church, Chrissie and Anthony did not flinch from their frightening task, drawing national and international attention to the plight of their children and so many others. Using every intelligence at his disposal, Anthony finally achieved an unprecedented, secret settlement for Emma and Katie. But still there was no apology, and the devastating wounds were not healed. Katie, who at 15 had fallen prey to secret alcohol abuse, had been permanently injured in an accident and to this day requires 24-hour care. At 26, Emma, who had qualified as a nurse, was to die on her bedroom floor of a medication overdose, clutching her favourite teddy; a symbol, perhaps, of the childhood which had been taken from her. This is a courageous account of a family's suffering, and their determination to stand up for themselves against the massive power of the Catholic Church.

Author Biography

Paul Kennedy is an ABC television presenter, senior print journalist, and director of an award-winning short film.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Saturday 19 October 1996	p. 1
My religious origins	p. 4
When alarm bells should toll	p. 27
The priest	p. 40
The past becomes the present	p. 61
A frightening path	p. 76
The disclosure	p. 92
Accountability	p. 118
The Oakleigh Forum	p. 130
The Melbourne Forum	p. 139
An evening with Archbishop Pell	p. 155
The Pell Process	p. 179
The dreaded late-night call	p. 197
Katie's struggle	p. 223
'It's all gossip until it's proven in court'	p. 243
The story goes national	p. 268
Bad company, diminished choices	p. 287
The bagman	p. 306
Emma	p. 316
Aimee	p. 346
'Dwelling crankily ... on old wounds'	p. 353
In the end, for the sake of children, we must change	p. 369
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