4,444 victims: extent of abuse in Catholic church in Australia revealed
AUSTRALIA - On Monday, the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse released damning statistics on the scale of the crisis within the Catholic Church. The numbers confirm the extent of sexual predation already suggested by four years of royal commission hearings involving the church, which are now entering their final weeks. Up to 15% of priests in some dioceses were alleged perpetrators between 1950 and 2015, with abusers most prevalent in the dioceses of Sale and Sandhurst in Victoria, Port Pirie in South Australia, and Lismore and Wollongong in New South Wales. The numbers were even worse in some national Catholic orders. In total, between 1980 and 2015, 4,444 people alleged incidents of child sexual abuse. The overwhelming majority of survivors were male. Almost 1,900 perpetrators were identified and another 500 remained unidentified. The disturbing figures were revealed by senior counsel assisting, Gail Furness, SC. She also revealed that several institutions had refused to hand over documents involving Australian priests accused of abuse. “The royal commission hoped to gain an understanding of the action taken in each case,” Furness said. “The Holy See responded, on 1 July 2014, that it was ‘neither possible nor appropriate to provide the information requested’,” she said. “Children were ignored or worse, punished. Allegations were not investigated. Priests and religious [brothers] were moved. The parishes or communities to which they were moved knew nothing of their past,” she said. “Documents were not kept or they were destroyed. ”
The church’s Truth, Justice and Healing council, set up to coordinate the church’s response to the crisis, made an opening statement following the release of the data. Chief executive Francis Sullivan struggled with emotion as he spoke, saying the data without doubt “undermines the image and credibility of the priesthood”. Church leaders last week began warning churchgoers and schools about the final weeks of the royal commission. The archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge, released a video to Catholic school parents and churches warning them to expect some “grim moments”. He said the final hearing would allow the church to tell a “better story” about how it has changed. The church would need to show how it had changed culturally, as well as through amendments to flawed child protection policies and procedures. “It’s not enough to change procedures and protocols, that has to happen. But we have to shift the culture and that’s a much more difficult thing to do,” he said.
(TheGuardian.com)