Report calls for compulsory reporting of sexual abuse
SYDNEY: Australia should introduce a law forcing religious leaders to report child abuse, including Catholic priests who are told of abuse in the confessional, according to a report into institutional child abuse released yesterday.
The 17volume document from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse marks the end of one of the world’s biggest inquiries into child abuse.
The fiveyear investigation found ‘‘multiple and persistent failings of institutions to keep children safe, the cultures of secrecy and coverup, and the devastating effects child sexual abuse can have on an individ ual’s life’’, the commission said in a statement.
The report detailed tens of thousands of child victims, saying their abusers were ‘‘not a case of a few rotten apples’’.
‘‘We will never know the true number,’’ it read.
The report called for a National Office for Child Safety and national child safety standards, child abuse reporting and recordkeeping, which would cover all institutions engaged in childrelated work.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the inquiry had ‘‘exposed a national tragedy’’.
The inquiry spanned religious, government, educational and professional organisations but heard many accounts alleging abuse coverups in the Australian Catholic Church, including allegations of moving priests suspected of abuse between parishes to avoid detection.
More than 60% of all the survivors who reported abuse in religious institutions cited the Catholic Church.
The report said the Catholic Church had demonstrated ‘‘catastrophic failures of leadership’’, particularly before the 1990s and that the average age of abuse victims at Catholic institutions was 11.
It said clergy who were told of child abuse in the confessional should be required by law to report it and called for the Catholic Church to make celibacy voluntary for clergy, saying it contributed to child abuse.
It also called for a new criminal offence that would make it easier to prosecute institutions which failed to protect children.
‘‘I’m appalled by the sinful and criminal activity of some clergy, religious and lay churchworkers,’’ Australia’s most senior catholic, Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher, said in a statement yesterday.
‘‘I’m ashamed of the failure to respond by some church leaders, and . . . I stand ready to address any systemic issues behind this.’’
The inquiry heard previously that the Australian Catholic Church paid $A276 million ($NZ302 million) in compensation to thousands of child abuse victims since 1980. — Reuters