Skyrocketing spending saw Cabinet Ministers (pictured) thinking of asking churches to help pay for the Royal Commission into historic abuse in care. Official documents reveal the myriad of options the government also considered using artificial intelligence to analyse potentially highly sensitive documents. The aim was to cut staffing costs. Instead of passing on the expenses Read more
The government is seeking to tighten controls on the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care. Besides insisting on a firm 2023 deadline to wind up the investigation, the government has told the Abuse in Care Commission that they may not investigate modern care providers and post-1999 cases of abuse. In addition, the Commission’s budget blow Read more
Survivor groups are not hopeful that the Royal Commission into the Abuse in Care will bring around change in churches. A spokesperson for the Network of Survivors of Abuse in Faith-Based Institutions, Liz Tonks, told RNZ that “victim-survivors were not hopeful because their experiences of churches is they have not been able to trust them Read more
On Tuesday 23 March, Dr Thomas P. Doyle, a US former Dominican priest will appear at the Royal Commission via audiovisual link from the United States. The Royal Commission says Doyle’s submission Firstly sets out the scope and recent history of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, how canon law applies and how the Read more
Representatives of Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian churches and leaders of the Salvation Army will give evidence later this month at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. They will be asked to explain their processes for resolving historic and current abuse claims and to respond to survivors’ evidence. The Inquiry’s second phase, which is Read more
An abuse survivor’s privacy has been breached by the Royal Commission investigating abuse in state and faith-based care. The breach involved a survivor’s personal details being mistakenly sent to another survivor. In an email to survivors, the commission said it was an isolated but serious incident, caused by human error. The commission said it was Read more
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care recently announced it will investigate The Catholic and Anglican churches. It is also going to be carrying out a separate inquiry into Marylands a residential school for boys, many with learning disabilities. But other investigations into faith-based institutions are also going to be set up, as Read more
The Catholic Church in Aotearoa New Zealand has welcomed the publication of details of the case study inquiry into the former Marylands School in Christchurch announced by the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care. Marylands was a residential school for children with learning difficulties, run between the mid-1950s and 1984 by the Brothers Hospitallers of Read more
The Royal Commission into Abuse in Care has published documents giving the details of its investigation into the Catholic Church. They include the Church’s part in faith-based redress for survivors – which will form part of the commission’s Inquiry into the historic abuse of children in the state and faith-based care. Cardinal John Dew, Vice-President Read more
A secret report being considered by Australia’s bishops wants unprecedented reform in the church. The reforms aim to make the church more inclusive and break down the structures that contributed to decades of clergy abuse and cover-ups. The church could be “dramatically overhauled” to give lay people more power, increase the number of women in Read more