A report by the Guardian said a body set up by the Catholic church in Australia to oversee its dealings with the royal commission into child sexual abuse is not the predominantly lay-run organisation it has been represented as.
The report noted that the Truth, Justice and Healing Council was established last January by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia to prepare documents and legal submissions for the royal commission and review the church’s existing abuse protocols.
It is chaired by retired NSW supreme court judge Barry O’Keefe, with former general secretary of the Australian Medical Association Francis Sullivan as its chief executive and media face.
The Guardian report said that although two of its 13 members are bishops – Mark Coleridge, the archbishop of Brisbane; and William Wright, the bishop of Maitland-Newcastle – the TJH Council has been promoted from the outset as a lay-dominated organisation operating at arm’s length from the hierarchy, and its own press releases describe it as an “independent advisory group”.
But the report added that the council is “tightly controlled” by a separate 11-member “supervisory group” made up of bishops and heads of religious orders. The existence of this second body is referred to in the TJH Council’s terms of reference, but its size and membership have never been made public.
The report said documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal that supervisory group is chaired by the archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, who is also chairman of the bishops’ conference.
Other members include the archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell; Coleridge; the archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson; the archbishop of Perth, Timothy Costelloe; bishop Eugene Hurley of Darwin; bishop Peter Ingham of Wollongong; and bishop Christopher Prowse of Sale. Sister Anne Derwin RSJ, Sister Annette Cunliffe RSC, and Father Tony Banks OSA represent the religious orders.
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Image: AAP Image/The Guardian
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