Still Standing

With special guest:

• Chrissie Foster
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

This is the story of how Chrissie Foster responded and refused to back down when confronted by an all-powerful secretive protected institution. Chrissie Foster’s family tragedies and the tepid response by the Catholic Church changed her from living a life of domestic harmony and peace in a totally unexpected way.

No doubt when the choice of schools had to be made for their daughters there were discussions between Chrissie and her husband Anthony. Because of Chrissie’s background being raised and educated in the Church they chose a Catholic primary school. Years later they discovered what their daughters had endured.

Chrissie tells us how two of her young daughters were sexually abused by a priest in the Catholic Church. This went against generations of religious faith in her family. Fortunately Chrissie’s family were prepared to join her and give all the support they could when the Church failed to respond. Chrissie’s mother had been a lifelong attendee at weekly Mass but she chose to give that practice up as a result.

Chrissie found out about the abuse indirectly at first through disclosures Father O’Donnell made to a prison Psychiatrist. When this was confirmed by her daughter Chrissie became a tigress defending her young. Chrissie is one of those people who has made a difference. There has been a Victorian Commission of Enquiry followed by the Royal Commission which was set up by Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Ms Gillard was so moved by Chrissie’s story that she overcame obstacles to the establishment of the Royal Commission, including the objections and obfuscation by the then top ranking Catholic in Australia, Cardinal George Pell.

As if this wasn’t enough Chrissie’s husband Anthony died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2017. And yet Chrissie was Still Standing and she took on the role of bringing the Church to account single handedly. Chrissie’s overwhelming driver has always been that in the interests of the children the Catholic Church should not be able to get away with this abuse.

Sexual abuse of young children has occurred in the thousands In Australia as in other countries such as Ireland, the United States, New Zealand, England and so many others. It is still hard to believe that these people in the Church could be not only parties to this unspeakable evil but also choose to cover it up. They looked after their own financial interests putting these above the welfare of the innocent children under their care.

Speaking with Chrissie is at once bordering on the unbelievable and yet totally inspiring.

Chrissie Foster

Chrissie Foster worked as a public servant for nine years, during which time she travelled extensively around Europe, the US and Mexico. She married Anthony in 1980 and by 1985 they had three beautiful daughters, Emma, Katie and Aimee, whom they raised in suburban Melbourne with what they hoped were the right values.

Chrissie could not have known that the stranger-danger she feared actually lurked in the presbytery attached to the girls’ Catholic primary school, with both Emma and Katie victims of clergy sex abuse. Chrissie’s heartbreaking account of her family’s suffering – and of the Church’s lies, silence, denials and threats – Hell on the Way to Heaven, was published in 2010. The Foster family’s case was one of those that prompted the establishment of the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Non-Government Organisations and the subsequent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Chrissie has since continued to fight for justice and redress for victims and survivors of child sexual assault by Catholic clergy. In 2018 she jointly won the Australian Human Rights Medal with Chief Royal Commissioner Hon Peter McClellan. Then, in 2019, Chrissie was named in the Australian Honours List as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) ‘For significant service to children, particularly as an advocate for those who have suffered sexual abuse’. Her ongoing activism inspires others to challenge once-powerful male-dominated institutions.

Song selection by our guest: You Get What You Give by New Radicals

Podcast (mp3)