The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) reported that more than 7,000 'Sexual Communication with a Child' offences were recorded by police last year.

The charity points to tech companies, calling for stricter accountability. Messaging apps like Snapchat are singled out as prominent platforms for online grooming.

The NSPCC Policy and Regulatory Manager, Rani Govender, said tech companies have "failed to grapple with the problem".

"We'd like tech companies to really build children's safety into the design of their services rather than relying on children having to spot abuse and then report it" she said.

"Tech companies need to be held accountable for this."

Abhorrent offences

A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Police described the offences as "abhorrent" and said a "dedicated and committed" team of officers was working to "eradicate" them.

The police spokesperson noted that young people face increased pressure to share intimate images online.

"Combined with an increase in access to phones and devices, young people are now more vulnerable to these types of offences" the spokesperson suggested.

To counteract this trend, Gloucestershire Police plan to launch a campaign through the Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children's Partnership. The focus of the campaign is to heighten awareness of online dangers.

Avon and Somerset Police acknowledged that the introduction of a new law may have naturally driven an increase in reports. A spokesperson also pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor, with higher online activity exposing children to increased risks.

Stronger preventative measures needed

Data revealed the most common platforms perpetrators used to target children. They were Snapchat (48 percent), WhatsApp (12 percent) and Facebook Messenger (10 percent).

Perpetrators typically used mainstream and open web platforms as the first point of contact with children.

The NSPCC has called on the Office of Communications (Ofcom) to strengthen its regulatory framework to ensure tech companies act proactively against child exploitation.

The charity argues that the regulator's current policies focus too heavily on reacting to incidents after harm occurs.

The NSPCC also advocates for legislation to safeguard children in private messaging spaces. It argues that stronger preventative measures are crucial in combating online grooming.

Sources

BBC

Education Business

CathNews New Zealand

A new UNSW Sydney and Jesuit Social Service study found one in five Australian men admitted having sexual feelings towards children and/or have sexually offended against children.

That statistic shows the necessity of safeguarding children at early childhood education and care services, and places where children gather.

The largest study of its kind ever undertaken globally, the survey looked at two main areas.

One of these examined identifying and understanding child sexual offending behaviour and attitudes among Australian men.

The other measured the prevalence of risk behaviours and attitudes regarding child sexual offending among a representative sample of 1,945 Australian men aged 18 to 65+ years of age.

Worryingly, only a third of those who reported having sexual feelings towards children said they were motivated to access help.

Key findings

Just over 15 per cent of Australian men report sexual feelings towards children

About one in 10 Australian men has sexually offended against children (including technologically facilitated and offline abuse).

Of those men who had sexually offended against children, about half (4.9 percent) reported having sexual feelings towards children. They were more likely than men with no sexual feelings or offending against children to:

• be married, working with children, earning higher incomes
• report anxiety, depression and binge drinking behaviour
• have been sexually abused or had adverse experiences in childhood
• be active online, including on social media, encrypted apps and cryptocurrency
• consume pornography that involves violence or bestiality

New approach

The study report recommends a new approach for measuring and tracking sexual offending and feelings for children. This includes information that can bolster service responses and attitudinal changes that help keep children safe from harm.

"This study brings unprecedented visibility to the numbers of undetected child sex offenders in the Australian community" said lead investigator Associate Professor Michael Salter.

"This study affirms what countless survivors have said - that the men who abused them were well connected and relatively wealthy, and whose behaviour is secretive and easily overlooked.

"By shining a light on the characteristics of individual perpetrators and the broader social and technological patterns that enable their abuse, it is our hope that this research can be the catalyst for change to ultimately keep children safe."

Key recommendations

Preventing child sexual abuse is essential, the report says.

It calls on government and the private sector to invest in ways to address risk factors contributing to sexual offending and reoffending, including:

Safeguarding children in "risky" environments - eg schools, day-care, social groups

Raising community understanding of child sexual abuse harm and challenging attitudes that support child sexual abuse

Improving online romance and dating site safety to reduce offender access to single parents

Providing early intervention services for men with sexual feelings towards children but who have not offended, and undetected offenders who want help

Supporting family and friends to identify problematic behaviour

Improving the capacity for child protection, law enforcement and the criminal justice system - to better identify men who are a chronic risk to children but who are adaptive in their efforts to avoid detection and prosecution

Source

• The Sector

Nobody wants to remember Marylands Place and Marylands Reserve.

Both are associated with abuse of children and young people.

One in five of the boys who attended the residential school run by the St John of God brothers reported being abused there.

That sorry statistic is detailed in an interim report released in 2023 for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.

The report described the institution as "hell on earth".

The new name

Next week, a Christchurch City Council community board is to consider a name for the street and park.

Board chairman Callum Ward said the Royal Commission recommended changing the street and park names. That recommendation echoes calls from survivors from the disgraced Catholic school.

"There are two main options on the table [as the new name for the street], one is Validation, the other is Monarch.

"Both of those name suggestions were provided by the survivors themselves" Ward said.

"Survivors spoke of not being believed, or even listened to, for a long time and they put forward the name Validation. It's an acknowledgement of their experiences and symbolic of them taking back power over what happened."

The survivors find the name Monarch, for the monarch butterfly, symbolic.

"We've worked closely with survivors... to find a name that recognises their experiences, acknowledges the traumatic association of the name, and contributes to puretumu torowhanui, or historic redress" Ward said.

If after the current public consultation phase the names are approved, the new street and park name change will be made from 4 June.

Sexual harm

Where to get help:

If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:

• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email support@safetotalk.nz
• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz

Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.

If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.

Source

• NZ Herald

On Monday, the Most Reverend Timothy Costelloe said he rejected any suggestion the church was trying to avoid taking responsibility for historical child sex abuses or did not take such complaints seriously.

Under intense questioning from Labor MP Dave Kelly over the church's handling of complaints, Archbishop Costelloe said he took full responsibility for the areas for which he was rightly responsible and did his best to ensure that those who had been hurt by other agencies in the church were referred to the ­correct people.

Archbishop Costelloe appeared as a witness to the WA parliamentary inquiry into the options available to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

Read More

A new code drafted by the industry giants at the government's request will require search engines to ensure that such content is not returned in search results, e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.

It will also require that AI functions built into search engines cannot produce synthetic versions of the same material, she said. Synthetic versions of the material are also known as deepfakes.

"The use of generative AI has grown so quickly that I think it's caught the whole world off guard to a certain degree," Inman Grant said.

Read More

There are already demands to extend the inquiry to all Victoria state schools.

The initial inquiry will investigate abuse that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as ongoing abuse committed by Beaumaris employees at other schools.

The investigation will establish an official record of the experiences of school victim-survivors and examine allegations of abuse by the three staff members, who also worked at other government schools.

Approximately $4.5 million is being set aside to support victim-survivors and run the inquiry, which could be expanded to investigate instances of historical abuse at other schools under its terms of reference.

"This is not in any way diminishing the experience of anybody at any other school," Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.

"But the circumstances at Beaumaris Primary School all those decades ago are unique, given there were multiple victims, multiple offenders, multiple predators at the one time."

Beaumaris "the tip of the iceberg"

There are demands to extend the inquiry to include all government-run schools in Victoria, as Beaumaris is seen as just "the tip of the iceberg," according to Victorian MP Brad Roswell.

Premier Andrews said at least three school staff members at the time are believed to be involved in what he described as vile, evil and predatory behaviour towards students.

"This is principally a truth-telling process and one that is about providing people with that certainty that they are heard, they are believed," Andrews told reporters.

"That is an important part of healing, it's an important part of justice."

More than five years have passed since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse concluded its final report and recommendations. The Royal Commission provided a platform for approximately 8,000 survivors of child sexual abuse to share their experiences.

No government school examined

Reportedly, 35.7 percent of survivors reported abuse within Catholic-run institutions, while 32.5 percent reported abuse within government-run institutions.

Despite the comparable proportions of allegations, Catholic-run institutions were the focus of twice as many public hearings as government-run schools, with no government school being examined during a public hearing.

The Royal Commission conducted five separate public hearings on Catholic schools and an additional six hearings on schools affiliated with other faith groups. However, government schools were not considered, aside from a couple of special schools that no longer exist.

The closest the Royal Commission came to addressing abuse in normal government schools was through the testimony of a single witness from the NSW Department of Education regarding student-on-student sexual abuse.

Charges were laid last month against an 82-year-old Queensland man as part of an ongoing police investigation into reported sexual assaults linked to the Beaumaris school.

The former teacher is set to face court on 26 counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1960s and 1970s.

Sources

Catholic Weekly

7 News

CathNews New Zealand

Five men and a woman sued the order in federal court on April 14 and 15, saying they were victims of sexual crimes when they attended schools run by the Legion of Christ in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. The alleged crimes took place in the 1990s when the complainants were children.

A spokesperson for the order said Monday that it was reviewing the complaints.

Read More

After decades of child sexual abuse scandals the Church is ready to share its successes — and failures — with other religious and lay institutions.

Francis' message was delivered by Michael Hoffman, a clergy child sexual abuse survivor and activist.

Representatives of several world religions, including Catholic, came together recently for an online symposium on preventing and healing child sexual abuse.

It is an evil that can be overcome, they agreed.

The April 8-10 "Faith and Flourishing: Strategies for Preventing and Healing Child Sexual Abuse," symposium was organized by the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University.

Seventy-three 73 speakers from different religious, cultural and professional backgrounds last weekend to address the phenomenon that has touched nearly every major religious group in the world.

One in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys experience sexual abuse at some point during childhood, according to reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most cases take place in the household at the hands of family members.

The symposium also addressed this and the impact of pedophilia in many other sections of society: from schools, to sports, to scouts and religious institutions.

"By listening to those who have been hurt so grievously, we begin to understand much better why it's important for faith communities to step up and acknowledge the harm that has been done in their midst," said Hans Zollner SJ at the symposium.

Zollner is the president of the Center for Child Protection at the Gregorian University in Rome.

"Religions can come together in the fight against sexual abuse of men, women and children," he said.

Zollner is highly respected for his role in addressing the sexual abuse scandals that have crippled the Catholic Church. Among his efforts he helped organise a 2017 conference on "Child Dignity in the Digital World,". This helped shift the perception of the Catholic Church and sexual abuse from being part of the problem to being instrumental to the solution.

Zollner said that "faith communities can in fact have a major impact on the greater community they serve."

Religious communities need to come together and share expertise and experiences, he said.

"This pandemic has shown that there are challenges that are much bigger than any one person, one religion, one country, one profession."

Sheikh Ibrahim Lethome, secretary-general and legal adviser to the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, said that religion is a "very powerful tool" for combating child sexual abuse.

Abbess Dhammananda Bhikkuni of the Buddhist Sanghammakalyani temple in Thailand (pictured) spoke of the importance of "pure listening" when encountering sexual abuse victims.

This is similar to the idea espoused by Francis in his efforts to address the clergy abuse crisis.

The abbess spoke of "listening without the I, listening without judgment," inviting faith leaders to go "into the depth of the pain" with victims and survivors.

She urged faith leaders not to be afraid to "show your tears,".

"Only when you really feel the pain of what they are going through, only then, we as faith leaders can help them," she added, underlining how this is the only way to establish trust, a prerequisite of healing.

Source

• Religion News Service
• Image: Medium

Fr Hans Zollner is president of the Centre for Child Protection at Rome's Gregorian University and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

He wrote in response after the survivors contacted him following the damning report into the Catholic Church.

The report was produced by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

In his letter, Zollner recognised the suffering and distress that victims and survivors of sexual abuse in England and Wales had endured.

He admitted that there is much work still to be done on safeguarding and is urging a change in the way victims and survivors are treated.

"Without voices like yours being at the centre of this process we will never be able to reach the changes and the conversion necessary for the recent reforms undertaken to take root and bring about real change," Zollner wrote.

He also urged the survivors to keep in touch with him.

The survivors recently wrote an open letter to the bishops of England and Wales.

They urged a change in the way victims are treated.

The group have received lengthy letters from the Archbishops of Southwark and Liverpool, and Fr Christopher Thomas, General Secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. Many other bishops from around the country also penned letters.

The bishops and others who wrote referred to the shame they felt at reading the IICSA report. They emphasised the need to heal wounds and meet and listen to survivors.

Bishop Mark O'Toole of Plymouth wrote that listening to survivors' stories broke his heart.

He said: "Such pain, however, is nothing compared to the agony and torment that you and other victims and survivors of abuse have suffered. Your voices, and those of other victims and survivors, need to be heard consistently not as a matter of the past, but in to help all of us face the reality of abuse."

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, also apologised to victims and survivors of abuse inflicted over 50 years in the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Cardinal Nichols was heavily criticised in IICSA's final report on the Roman Catholic Church.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Church Times

And the problem is largely hidden from authorities and the public.

These are findings in a joint survey by the NGOs Save the Children, and End Child Prostitution and Trafficking International.

A recent UN report also revealed that abuse of children in Fiji is usually performed by family members, foreign tourists, taxi drivers, businesspeople and crew on foreign fishing vessels.

Read More

While the Vatican's ruling following its guilty verdict has banned Apuron from returning to Guam and has removed him permanently from his post, he is still a priest.

His successor, Archbishop Michael Byrnes, has apologised and pledged to help the Church and its followers in Guam.

Byrnes admits there are still plenty of questions as to why Apuron wasn't completely exiled from the Church.

"It means he can still act as a priest, he can still say Mass," Byrnes says.

"There's still some blurry areas around this for me, and I'm just trying to get my head around it."

The Church is already being criticised for what many say is a case of double standards.

In February, the Vatican expelled the former US cardinal Theodore McCarrick from the priesthood over allegations he sexually abused adults and minors.

Source

• ABC
• Image: ktuu.com

In an initial response to the report, a Vatican Press Office released a statement saying the report is a thorough effort that "deserves to be studied seriously."

It reiterated the commitment of the Holy See to be close to the Church in Australia as it responds to the sex abuse crisis.

Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president, offered the bishops' unconditional apology for the suffering that had been caused.

He gave a commitment to ensuring justice for those affected.

Hart said the bishops would take the royal commission's recommendations seriously and present them to the Holy See.

He said many of the panel's recommendations would have a significant impact on the way the Catholic Church operates in Australia.

However, the archbishop took issue with the recommendation that the seal of the confession should not apply to allegations or canonical disciplinary processes relating to child sexual abuse.

He said the seal of confession cannot be broken, even if priests face the prospect of criminal charges for failing to report child sexual abuse.

"I revere the law of the land and I trust it, but this is a sacred spiritual charge before God which I must honour, and I have to respect and try to do what I can with both."

Hart said if a person confessed "those heinous crimes" to him he would refuse them absolution until they went to the authorities.

He said if a child came to him and told him they had been molested, he would see the conversation move outside the confessional and take them to a parent or teacher to see that the allegations were reported.

Hart said he will make sure bishops pass that recommendation suggesting voluntary celibacy on to the Holy See who will make the decision.

While he said he believed there were benefits to the vow of celibacy, he admitted it was a difficult undertaking.

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher said he stood ready to address systemic issues behind the abuse.

He said he was appalled by the sinful and criminal activity of some members of the clergy and ashamed by the response of church leaders.

Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said there will be no easy dismissal of people's stories, no sweeping of things under the carpet, no cover-ups.

The recommendations to the Catholic church include:

• Parish priests are not to be the employers of principals and teachers in Catholic schools.
• The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference should request the Holy See to amend canon law so that the pontifical secret [the seal of confession] does not apply to any aspect of allegations or canonical disciplinary processes relating to child sexual abuse.
• The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference should request the Holy See to publish criteria for the selection of bishops including relating to the promotion of child safety.
• The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference should establish a transparent process for appointing bishops which includes the direct participation of lay people.
• The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference request the Holy See to consider introducing voluntary celibacy for diocesan clergy.
• All Catholic religious institutes in Australia, in consultation with their international leadership and the Holy See as required, implement measures to address the risks of harm to children and the potential psychological and sexual dysfunction associated with a celibate rule of religious life.
• This should include consideration of whether and how existing models of religious life could be modified to facilitate alternative forms of association, shorter terms of celibate commitment, and/or voluntary celibacy (where that is consistent with the form of association that has been chosen.
• The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and all Catholic religious institutes in Australia should further develop, regularly evaluate and continually improve their processes for selecting, screening and training of candidates for the clergy and religious life, and their processes of ongoing formation, support and supervision of clergy and religious.
• The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious of Australia should establish a national protocol for screening candidates before and during seminary and religious formation, as well as before ordination and the profession of religious vows.

More

• Click here to read all 15 recommendations made to the Catholic Church
• Click here to go to the Commission's Official Website
• Click here for the full report
• Listen to Fr Neil Vaney talking on Sunday Morning about seal of confession

Source

• Vatican News
• New York Times
• RNZ
• SBS
• The Guardian
• Child Abuse Royal Commission
• Image: AAP

He was one of three people to speak when Pope Francis met with the commission face-to-face for the first time.

Together with Sr Hermenegild Makoro, Kilgallon gave a presentation on the projects carried out by the Commission's six working groups over the past three years.

More than 200 workshops and seminars have been held all over the world, including the Vatican, seeking to raise awareness about the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults, and the church's duty to educate, train and protect its members.

Kilgallon said those churches that do have proper structures and suitable safeguards risk becoming complacent.

So it is vital such countries continue to review and renew their policies and practices, especially through the use of external audits.

He stated that they know what you need for a safe environment. But there are problems; these include:

Convincing countries that struggle because of a lack of information, resources and personnel to reach out for help
Getting essential information to everyone, including parents and children
Convincing those with guidelines in place that real action must accompany them.

Killgallon said the church needs to listen better to victims of abuse. It must be clear, firm and honest in proving that abuse has no place in its institutions.

Protecting children is not only central to Christ's teachings but "you can't give people their childhood back. We get only one chance," he said.

Kilgallon said the papal commission, which is expected to welcome new members at the end of the year, will "have to be persistent" because the work of safeguarding and healing "is too important to be delayed and distracted."

He and Makoro said the pope recognises the difficulties they have faced and has urged them to keep going.

"With the pope's support, things are going to happen," she said. "It's going to be difficult, but I'm sure step-by-step, little-by-little, things are going to take shape."

Source

• Crux
• CNS
• Image: s3.amaznaws

The report, Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: An Interpretive Review of the Literature and Public Inquiry Reports, was co-authored by Prof Des Cahill and theologian Dr Peter Wilkinson.

Cahill, who helped the Australian child sexual abuse royal commission, says part of the reason he has devoted the past five years to analysing why child abuse has plagued the church came about because he found he's been living with pedophile priests.

After examining the findings of inquiries, police records and church reports since 1985, Cahill and Wilkinson found the patriarchal nature of Catholic establishments that means abuse can go unchallenged.

The possibility of abuse in Catholic residential institutions, like orphanages, should be getting more attention, especially in developing countries, the report notes.

Cahill and Wilkinson reported that although a small number of nuns had abused, the risk for children was much higher in institutions where male priests had minimal interaction with women.

"Their contact with women in teacher training institutions would have been carefully proscribed and then they were appointed to male-only schools where they were in charge of young boys and adolescents,' the report says.

"And they were living in all-male religious communities. They had to make do with a sacralised image of a sexless Virgin Mary.

"It was a recipe for a psycho-spiritual disaster."

Cahill says the report's findings show there's an urgent need to rethink the priesthood in the 21st century in relation to the celibacy requirement for priests.

Source

• The Guardian
• Christian Today
• New York Times
• Image: Psychology Today

Charged for endangering the welfare of children and criminal conspiracy were Giles A. Schinelli, 73, Robert J. D'Aversa, 69, and Anthony M. Criscitelli, 61.

All three served as provincial superiors of the Franciscan friars.

"These men knew there was a child predator in their organization," said Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

"Their silence resulted in immeasurable pain and suffering for so many victims. These men turned a blind eye to the innocent children they were trusted to protect," Kane added.

The attorney general said the the Franciscan superiors did not report any allegations against its members to police, choosing "silence over children's safety."

On March 1, a 147-page grand jury report said at least 50 priests and religious leaders within the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese in the United States had committed child sex abuse and several diocese leaders had reportedly worked to keep the allegations under wraps.

The charges against the Franciscans represent one of the broadest-ever drives to hold Roman Catholic higher-ups to account in any American criminal court for the sexual abuse of minors by those under their supervision. And they're the first religious-order superiors to face such charges.

To date, only a Missouri bishop and a Philadelphia monsignor have been convicted of cover-up-related charges, with the latter on appeal.

The Franciscan friars issued a statement saying they were "deeply saddened" by the news.

Sources

The Wall Street Journal
WCBC Radio
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Image: AP/The Wall Street Journal

Tim Minchin's "musical attack" on Cardinal Pell has been a lightning rod for debate on social media.

Against a background of negative commentary, it is easy to lose sight of positive changes that are taking place across churches and the broader community.

Positive changes that are taking place across churches and the broader community are being overshadowed by the social media campaign against Cardinal George Pell.

On the same day last week that support for an "anti-Pell campaign" was building, the NSW Ombudsman's office tabled a report in Parliament that told a different story - a story of church openness, not a "cover-up".

The report, Strengthening the oversight of workplace child abuse allegations, comes after all of NSW's Catholic and Anglican archbishops and bishops jointly called on the NSW Parliament at the end of last year to enact legislation that would open their churches' work with children to further external scrutiny.

These church leaders are asking Parliament to put measures in place to ensure that all allegations of sexual or other abuse of children made against their clergy, employees and volunteers must be reported to and oversighted by the Ombudsman.

For the past 16 years my office has administered a "reportable conduct scheme" that is unique in Australia. Thousands of agencies that provide services to children must notify the Ombudsman of child abuse allegations made against their employees and volunteers.

Each year we handle about 1400 notifications, many involving criminal allegations. Presently, 134 of our open cases concern individuals who have been charged with criminal offences against children. Most charges involve child sexual abuse. Continue reading

• John McMillan is the acting NSW Ombudsman. The item above was published in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Justice Peter McClellan said some Australian institutions where children were abused either have no money or no longer exist.

He chairs the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Justice McClellan said the commission would publish a paper in January, 2015, with proposals on compensation.

It will publish final proposals in mid-2015.

He said one of the elements in an effective response to victims "is a lump sum payment, which marks the abuse and recognises the failure of the institution to keep the person safe as a child".

He said because some institutions had ceased to exist and others had no money, some abuse survivors have no access to compensation.

Justice McClellan said this fell short of the commission's brief of ensuring justice for all victims.

The Catholic and Anglican churches in Australia have been pushing for a government-run scheme to which they would contribute.

Survivor groups such as Care Leavers Australia Network want an interim scheme immediately as some of its members are very old.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance has argued the government should not take charge of the scheme as some homes were government-run and there would be a vested interest to keep payments low.

The alliance wants an independent panel to run the scheme.

Justice McClellan said it was fundamentally important abuse survivors received a meaningful apology and had access to counselling or psychiatric care.

"The answer can only be found in a secure source of funds.

"By some means, funding must be found which ensures that professionals are available to keep people alive and otherwise provide them with the capacity to function effectively," he said.

Sources

• The West Australian
• Image: ABC

The Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council told Australia's Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that such a scheme should be run by the federal government.

The council's submission also recommended that victims who have already received compensation be able to access the new scheme, for an independent review of past settlements.

The scheme also recommends redress should be capped and the limit determined "in line with community standards".

But the Church wants to maintain the legally binding deeds of release already signed by many victims so they could access the Church's Towards Healing process.

"A deed of release in a legal sense is about releasing various parties from civil litigation and that's what they've signed," the council's chief executive, Francis Sullivan, told Guardian Australia.

"Most people signed deeds of release with legal advice and with knowledge of that," he said.

Under the scheme proposed by the Church, there would be no time limit for making a claim and redress should take into account medical and counselling expenses as well as past and future lost earnings.

Claimants should be allowed to access low-cost legal advice and those who are unsuccessful in the federal scheme should then have the option of instigating civil proceedings.

The proposal also extends the provision of compensation to the immediate family of victims.

Mr Sullivan said the scheme would offer fair and compassionate compensation.

"The days of the Catholic Church investigating itself are over," he said.

"For the sake of the survivors of clerical sexual abuse within the Church and all other institutions, the development of an independent national victims' redress scheme is a giant step forward in delivering justice for people suffering the devastating impacts of child sexual abuse."

The Uniting Church in Australia has backed a similar scheme which is mandatory for all relevant institutions, but the Salvation Army says it should be on an "opt-in" basis.

Care Leavers Australia Network executive officer Leonie Sheedy said many survivors had just received "breadcrumbs" to compensate them for the abuse they suffered.

She said a fair redress scheme was well overdue.

"It sounds encouraging but talk is cheap; it's what's in the fine print that matters," she said.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Guardian Australia
• Image: The Australian

In an interview with the Canberra Times, Archbishop Christopher Prowse said the Church is going through an "unprecedented crisis".

"There is so much shame, there is so much humiliation with the criminal acts of some of us [that] for us to stand alongside victims, to encourage them to come forward and to listen to their story, is absolutely imperative," he said.

Appointed to lead the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn last September, Archbishop Prowse said he had been humbled and inspired by "the raw courage of so many victims of clerical sex abuse as children".

"They have been very heroic in trying to refocus on their life and to instruct us as a church [on] where we have failed and what we can do to ameliorate a very difficult stage of our history."

He said the victims "who are able to be courageous enough to share with us their stories" are "the new missionaries".

"When I sit down with victims there's tears, there is anger, there's shouting, there's lament.

"Yet, over a period of time, I've also found reservoirs of wanting to start again, a sense of forgiveness that would come after the acknowledgement of the injustice, a sense of working together to make sure these things don't happen again."

The archbishop is the first to concede the road to reconciliation is complex, delicate and challenging.

"Sex abuse is a bit like an atomic bomb on faith. It devastates faith for the people that have been affected by it directly."

Last week, Pope Francis was reported in the Italian La Repubblica newspaper that abuse of children is "leprosy" in the Church.

He pledged to "confront it with the severity it requires".

The Pope was reported as saying he had been told that two per cent of Catholic clergy are paedophiles.

The number would represent 8000 priests, based on the latest Vatican figures that count a total of 414,000 priests globally.

Sources

• Canberra Times
• Kansas City Star
• Image: Canberra Times

Dr Noreen Tehrani, who advises specialist child abuse detectives,says many officers suffering exhaustion, secondary trauma and stress.

Pressure from politicians has also forced officers to divert attention from children at risk now to historic cases, The Guardian reports.

Dr Tehrani said this places children currently at risk of abuse in greater danger.

"[Officers] are just completely inundated with work, they are beginning to collapse," Dr Tehrani said

There aren't enough officers in these specialist teams, she said.

Some officers are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder themselves, she said.

Dr Tehrani said she would write to the UK Home Secretary about the issue.

Allegations in the UK have increased dramatically following the exposure of celebrities such as Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall.

Officers are dealing with hundreds of historic cases involving abuse in institutions including schools, churches, children's homes and a number of allegations relating to high profile people.

Their workload is likely to increase with the establishment of the wide ranging inquiry led by Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, announced by ministers last week.

But Lady Butler-Sloss, a retired judge and peer, is herself facing accusations that she kept allegations about a Church of England bishop out of a report on a paedophile scandal.

In 2011, she told a victim of alleged abuse that she did not want to include the claims because "the press would love a bishop".

Lady Butler-Sloss cited the bishop's age and her desire that the focus be on two notorious Church of England paedophile clerics.

She said she would mention the allegations about the bishop in a private report to the Archbishop of Canterbury instead.

Bishop Peter Ball, 82, the former Bishop of Lewes and Bishop of Gloucester, was charged this year with indecent assault offences and misconduct in a public office.

Lady Butler-Sloss was also forced to apologise for "inaccuracies" in a previous inquiry into two paedophile priests.

Labour MP Simon Danczuk said "there is information coming out by the day which suggests she [Lady Butler-Sloss] is unsuitable for the role".

A Home Office spokesman expressed support for Lady Butler-Sloss's integrity and her suitability to lead the inquiry.

Sources

• The Guardian
• The Telegraph
• Image: The Guardian