A past Emmanuel College student and victim of clerical abuse has applauded Mr Morgan and the Emmanuel College board for having the courage to recognise the past wrongs.
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“The easy options would have been to just remove the plaques and ignore the issue,” he said.
“This proactive step is a great change of attitude towards victims. Hopefully the abuses of the past will never be repeated.”
The victim said he hoped the stance taken by Emmanuel College was adopted by schools and churches across the Ballarat diocese and Victoria.
“If you have a plaque honouring Bishop Mulkearns in your school or church what action are you taking?” he asked.
“This is an enormous step in the healing process.”
National support service for survivors of institutional abuse, In Good Faith CEO Clare Leaney, said the input of survivors was crucial in actions like those being taken by Emmanuel College.
She said the current generation was far more aware of the damage caused by sexual abuse, particularly when it involved a breach of faith and trust.
“Certainly within the schools there is a push to recognise what happened in the past and that will feed back into parishes,” she said.
“This is also enabling an attitude of victims into the future being able to speak to people in authority and for them to respond appropriately.”
Ms Leaney said Melbourne’s Xavier college had installed a commemorative rock and memorial plaques ouside and inside its chapel to recognise the survivors of abuse.
She said that unfortunately some survivors no longer felt comfortable inside the chapel.
