WHO HOLDS THOSE IN POWER ACCOUNTABLE?
https://vimeo.com/1218408864We are sharing this audio from an announcement made by Bishop Robert Rabbat at St Joseph’s Melkite Catholic Church, Fairfield, on Sunday 22 September 2024.
🎥 Audio/video recording with supporting information:
https://vimeo.com/1218408864
For transparency and context, the original full recording of the Mass is also publicly available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCduPMxAiA
Our question is simple:
How is it possible for someone in a position of authority and responsibility such as Bishop Robert Rabbat, having received a serious formal complaint involving allegations of sexual misconduct against a priest, to stand before parishioners and provide an explanation that, in our view, did not reflect the seriousness of what was actually taking place?
What concerns us even more is the explanation given for Father Samir Haddad’s absence, which we believe was misleading and inconsistent with what our family had been formally told only days earlier.
On 18 September 2024 — just four days before this announcement — our family received written correspondence from Bishop Rabbat concerning our complaint and the proposed canonical process.
That raises an obvious and important question:
How can what our family was being told privately be reconciled with what parishioners were being told publicly from the church only days later?
To be clear, the allegations concerning Father Samir Haddad remain allegations. We are not asking Facebook or the public to determine guilt or innocence.
What we are questioning is how the leadership of the Melkite Church handled a serious complaint involving allegations of sexual misconduct and how the circumstances surrounding the matter were subsequently communicated to the community.
After more than two years of pursuing our complaint and repeatedly seeking answers, our experience has left us deeply disappointed with the leadership of the Melkite Church and particularly with what we expected from someone holding the position and responsibility of Bishop Robert Rabbat.
Religious authority should never place anyone beyond scrutiny or accountability.
The greater the authority, the greater the responsibility to act with integrity, transparency and accountability.
When transparency disappears, trust follows.
So we continue to ask:
Who holds those in positions of power accountable when the institution responsible for holding them accountable fails to provide answers?
We want the truth.
We want transparency.
We want accountability.
Silence does not protect the Church.
Truth and accountability do.
🎥 Audio/video recording:
https://vimeo.com/1218408864
📺 Original full recording – 22 September 2024:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCduPMxAiA