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Leaders of the Australian Catholic Church have been accused of trivialising sex abuse as a “short-term embarrassment.
The accusation comes in the Victorian state government’s report on child sex abuse.
Launching the report in the Victoria State Parliament, inquiry chairwoman, Georgie Crozier spoke of “a betrayal beyond comprehension” and of children suffering “unimaginable harm”.
The Age reports that committee member Andrea Coote said the Catholic Church had
- minimised the problem,
- trivialised the problem,
- kept the community in ignorance, and
- ensured that perpetrators were not held accountable, so that children continued to be abused.
”With the notable exception of Father Kevin Dillon [the Geelong priest who gave evidence], we found that today’s church leaders view the current question of abuse of children as a ‘short-term embarrassment’ which should be handled as quickly as possible to cause the least damage to the church’s standing. They do not see the problems as raising questions about the church’s own culture,” she said.
Ms Coote accused the Australian Catholic hierarchy of a failure to ‘walk the talk’; their values being in contrast to the stated values of the Church.
She said the Church had developed a “sliding morality”, compartmentalising issues to avoid the obvious moral conflicts.
The Committee is calling for change.
Victorian Premier, Dr Denis Napthine called on the religious involved to hold their heads in shame.
He said the State Government will take up the committee’s recommendations and will immediately begin drafting legislation to
- make a new criminal offence for ‘grooming’ a child
- make a new child endangerment offence
- remove the statute of limitations on offences
- make it a crime to conceal child abuse offences
While supporting the Committee’s key recommendations, Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart disagreed with the comment the Church hierarchy viewed child-abuse as a short-term embarrassment.
He said he thought the has made good progress in handling matters of sexual abuse, but could do better.
Committee members were greeted warmly when they left the chamber.
Sources
- The Age
- Image: The Australian
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