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| George Ferris |
Chris Morrison, 43, of Paris, Ont., held a news conference Friday morning in Brantford announcing the lawsuit against former priest George Ferris. Ferris, 66, is serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence for sexual assaults against Morrison and two other teenage boys in the 1980s and 1990s.
The diocese stripped Ferris of his title of priest days after he was sentenced in late January.
Morrison, who asked at Ferris's sentencing that the publication ban against identifying him as one of Ferris's victim be lifted, said he is suing for compensation for the suffering he's endured and continues to endure because of the abuse, but also because he still has many questions.
"I just want answers from the Anglican Church as to what they knew about any allegations of abuse, how they were dealt with or were they swept aside," Morrison said Friday in an interview (more...)
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All clergy abuse survivors have every legal right to stand up for themselves and also seek justice for themselves and also for their fellow clergy abuse survivors.
ReplyDeleteA good example of this was when Scottish priest whistle-blower and clergy abuse survivor had publicly spoken out about his own sexual abuse case where he had been wrongly sexually abused by a fellow priest while he was a seminarian 18 years ago in the British media. He not only had spoken publicly and bravely on behalf of himself but he had also courageously spoken out on the behalf of his fellow clergy abuse victims. For many years, Father Lawson has intrepidly challenged the Scottish church authority for its wrongfully protecting and supporting clergy abusers while at the same time it had wrongfully ignored the appalling plight of clergy abuse victims.
To me, Father Lawson's intrepid, tenacious spirit is brilliantly and aptly depicted in Elie Wiesel's famous quotation:" I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
In closing, I do want to say that I was so impressed by Father Lawson's exemplary moral example, that I had ended up recently launching an online petition in support of him and his just cause on the highly popular Care 2 petition website. I did that because I do strongly feel that he is a great moral example to all people; no matter they be Christian, non-Christian, or non-theist.
---Judy Hageman, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada