Proust, whose role on the Council is to supervise and coordinate the Church's response to the Commission and its recommendations, says she fears the Church will emerge only "partially cleansed and unreconstructed.

"...there's a view that once the Royal Commission reports and the publicity around what will be a fairly dire report all dies down, that life will go back to what it was.

"I hope I'm wrong. I'd like to think that the possibility for real transformation of the Church exists, but it's an institution that's been very slow to change on a whole range of issues."

Proust wants the Church to establish permanent and independent protocols to deal with future cases of abuse.

"I don't see any sign that the lessons have been truly learned to the point where the institution of the Church is being questioned by those who've got the ability to change it," she says.

The Church leadership, she said, had not made a "heartfelt apology" for decades of sexual abuse by priests.

In February, the royal commission released data showing 4,444 people had made abuse allegations against the Church between 1980 and 2015.

In the 60 years between 1950 and 2010, there were 1,880 alleged perpetrators of abuse, including 572 priests.

But Ms Proust said vocal and influential groups within the Church appeared to be in denial about the depth of the scandal.

Source

• ABC
• Image: Green Cities 2017

This step is part of a reform agenda described as potentially "the most significant overhaul of the Church's approach to clerical sexual abuse in its more than 200-year history in Australia".

The reform proposals are outlined in the submission of the Church's lay-led Truth Justice and Healing Council to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

The proposals include:

• Appointing independent compensation commissioners to determine payments to victims who go through the victim response process known as Towards Healing. This would separate the pastoral responses in Towards Healing from the determination of financial payments.
• the appointment of lay and independent experts to strengthen the Church's National Committee of Professional Standards.
• The introduction of an independent national board to develop and administer national child protection standards. The board would monitor adherence to these standards and publicly report on compliance.
• The board would also provide more rigorous assessment, monitoring, auditing and enforcement of Towards Healing practices.
• The introduction of greater transparency through public reporting by both the new national board and the Towards Healing process.

The chief executive officer of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, said ultimately it may be appropriate for the Church to merge the reparation element of Towards Healing into a national compensation scheme to which all relevant institutions would contribute to, should this be a recommendation of the royal commission.

Mr Sullivan said the reforms are now being fully developed and will be presented to Church leaders in the first half of 2014.

Sources:

Sydney Morning Herald

Truth Justice and Healing Council

Image: Truth Justice and Healing Council