THE Melbourne Catholic church's vicar-general has attacked the emergence of what he describes as a ''victims' industry'' that seeks to exploit victims of church sexual abuse. In an interview with The Age in which Bishop Les Tomlinson dismissed calls from a victims' collective to review the Melbourne archdiocese's handling of sexual abuse claims, he said he ''wouldn't rule out the possibility that there are people willing to exploit these victims for their own gain".
"You could perhaps draw a conclusion that there is what could be termed a victims' industry," he said.
Bishop Tomlinson also said some victims found it hard to accept the church's response to sexual abuse because of ''a general condition that arises out of the abuse they have suffered … (and) gives them a disposition whereby nothing is right with the world".
But Catherine Arthur, a former nun who was abused in the 1970s by father Barry Whelan, said: "We are not making a lifestyle of this. This shocking abuse happened and it should never have happened. It is disgusting to say there is a victims' industry."
Lawyer Paul Holdway, who has represented many victims, said the bishop's comments were offensive and ignored the struggle of many victims to have their abuse acknowledged.
The director of Melbourne advocacy group In Good Faith and Associates, Helen Last, said she was rarely paid for her work helping victims and described the bishop's comments as ''insulting''.
Meanwhile, the Melbourne archdiocese has said it did not endorse a St Patrick's Cathedral newsletter that named Barry Whelan as a "living treasure" and asked parishioners to pray for him in the "year of the priest".
Over several decades, five women have accused Whelan of sexually abusing them, including a woman who was 13 at the time of the alleged abuse and a woman who claims to have had Whelan's son.
The Melbourne archdiocese suspended Whelan in the late 1990s after allegations of sexual abuse, but he appealed to the Vatican under canon law and was reinstated to his parish.
He retired in 2002 while facing a fresh abuse claim that was later upheld.
A church spokesman said that Whelan's name was mistakenly put on the list of ''living treasures'' and it was not endorsed.
''We apologise if anyone was offended by the appearance of his name,'' the spokesman said.
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