No place to hide

WHO knew? The Catholic Church knew, that’s who. Now we know too, that sexual atrocities against children of a horrendous nature and on a horrendous scale have been committed within the Catholic Church in Australia over many decades.

In the past 35 years there were 1 880 alleged perpetrators from more than 1 000 Catholic entities. Thanks to research undertaken by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, we know that about 7 percent of priests sexually abused children. That is staggering enough, but in some religious orders, the proportion of these child rapists and paedophiles was much higher: from the St John of God, 40.4 percent. From the Christian Brothers, 22 percent. The Salesians of Don Bosco 21.9 percent, Marist Brothers 20.4 percent and De La Salle Brothers 13.4 percent.

So who knew of this widespread criminality against children? Not Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, apparently. Not the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference either.

The current public hearing is the commission’s 50th and the 15th relating to the Catholic Church. That is not disproportionate when you consider that among the 6 443 people who have reported their abuse in confidence to the commission, some 37 percent said they were abused in a Catholic institution.

In fairness, the Catholic Church has probably done more than many of those to come under the commission’s spotlight to chart a better course. We do not doubt that Francis Sullivan, head of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council set up to coordinate the church’s response, wept genuine tears in the witness box while describing the numbers as “indefensible”.