Cardinal George Pell of Sydney says priests should refuse to hear confessions from suspected child abusers to ensure they were not then bound by the confidentiality of the confessional.
“If the priest knows beforehand about such a situation, the priest should refuse to hear the confession, that would be my advice. I would never hear the confession of a priest who was suspected of such a thing,” he said.
Cardinal Pell was speaking following Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement of a wide-ranging royal commission into sexual abuse.
Australia’s Catholic bishops welcomed the announcement but said “talk of a systemic problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is ill-founded and inconsistent with the facts”.
The bishops’ conference said much of the public discussion had been about how cases were dealt with 20 or more years ago, but the Church had taken decisive steps since then to make child safety a priority and to help victims of abuse.
Cardinal Pell also welcomed the royal commission. “We think it’s an opportunity to help the victims, it’s an opportunity to clear the air, to separate fact from fiction,” he said.
But he accused the press of a “persistent campaign” against the Catholic Church and said he hoped the royal commission would stop this “smear campaign” against the Church.
“We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church,” he told reporters. “We object to it being exaggerated. We object to being described as the only cab on the rank.”
In Newcastle, the northern New South Wales diocese that has allegedly experienced some of the worst child sexual abuse and paid at least $NZ19 million in compensation, Bishop Bill Wright said it was possible a paedophile ring existed among its clergy in the 1970s and 80s.
“One priest who was abusing someone was in a parish next to another priest who turned out to be an abuser. Or one known abuser contributing funds to the defence of another known abuser,” Bishop Wright said.
“We’ve not exactly been able to join those dots. What we haven’t got is evidence of them passing victims around, what you would call a ring. It’s possible.”
Sources:
Image: Herald Sun
