Senior cleric apologises for abuse
Lawyer in Mongolia graft probe cleared
SYDNEY, Dec 24, (Agencies): Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric on Monday apologised to those who “suffered at the hands” of priests and religious teachers, in a Christmas message issued after a turbulent year for the Church.
In the video message broadcast on television, Sydney Archbishop George Pell said he was shocked and ashamed, following a series of paedophile allegations against priests and claims they were hushed up.
Pell said his heart went out to “all those who cannot find peace at this time, especially those who have suffered at the hands of fellow Christians, Christian officials, priests, religious teachers”.
“I am deeply sorry this has happened,” he added.
“I feel too the shock and shame across the community at these revelations of wrongdoing and crimes.”
Without specifically mentioning child sex abuse, Pell said the hurt caused was “completely contrary” to Christ’s teachings.
“We need our faith in God’s goodness and love to cope with these disasters, to help those who have been hurt,” he said.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard last month ended more than a decade of growing pressure by ordering a royal commission to investigate the responses of all religious organisations, schools and state care to allegations of abuse.
Announcement
Her announcement came after a senior police investigator claimed the Church had covered up sexual abuse of children in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, to protect paedophiles and its own reputation.
The government in Victoria state is already investigating allegations of sex abuse by the clergy, with the Church telling a state parliamentary hearing in September that at least 620 children had been abused since the 1930s.
When Gillard announced the royal commission, Pell welcomed it as an opportunity to help victims, “clear the air” and “separate fact from fiction”.
“We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church,” he said at the time.
“We object to it being exaggerated, we object to being described as the only cab on the rank. I don’t think we should be scapegoated.”
Pell’s Christmas message drew mixed reactions from victim support groups, with some saying it represented a “major shift” in the Church’s position while others said it did not go far enough.
“It’s pleasing that he’s opening up his heart to these people,” Wayne Chamley, a spokesman for victims support group Broken Rites, told ABC television.
“They seem to now appreciate the scale of it. I don’t think we’ve seen a statement in the past which was reflecting on the scale of what’s gone on.”
But Adults Surviving Child Abuse president Cathy Kezelman called it “an absolutely minimal response to express regret”.
“It’s very important that we also acknowledge the failure of religious organisations, including the Catholic Church, to respond appropriately to victims,” she said.
“To have that ultimate betrayal by someone not only you should trust but is meant to be setting a moral compass.”
Gillard has refused to put a deadline on the royal commission, but said the government had taken the first steps towards shaping the terms of reference.
Child sex abuse allegations have rattled the Catholic Church across the world, particularly in Ireland but also in the United States, Germany and Belgium.
An Australian lawyer who had been barred from leaving Mongolia has been cleared of involvement in a corruption case and will soon be able to leave the country, her employer said Monday.
SouthGobi Resources, a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian resources giant Rio Tinto, said Mongolia’s Independent Authority Against Corruption (IAAC) had ended its questioning of its chief legal counsel Sarah Armstrong.
SouthGobi has been informed by the IAAC that the 32-year-old “is no longer a suspect in their investigations”, the coal firm said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange where it is listed.
“The IAAC has informed the company that she will shortly be able to leave the country,” SouthGobi said.
The Australian was barred from boarding a flight from Ulan Bator to Hong Kong in October as Mongolian authorities probed a corruption case, triggering calls from Armstrong’s mother to let her daughter return home.
Officials wanted to question Armstrong as a witness to alleged corruption and money-laundering, although details of the case have remained sketchy.
Mongolian officials said Armstrong was wanted over an investigation into the former chief of Mongolia’s mining authority, who is suspected of illegally handling mining licences, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr refused to comment on the nature of the case when he confirmed in October the lawyer was barred from leaving Mongolia.
SouthGobi said the IAAC was continuining its probe into “the divestment of certain SouthGobi licences to third parties” and the “involvement and conduct of government officials” linked to the case. It gave no other details.
Australia is the biggest investor in Mongolia’s mining sector and the largest mine in the resource-rich country is backed by Australian money, according to Carr.
A 14-year-old Scottish boy has died in searing heat in the harsh Australian Outback while hiking with his father, police said.
Ewan Williamson, who arrived in Australia in mid-December, collapsed four hours into the walk in the Cape Range National Park on Friday with little water or shade as temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
In naming the boy who died in hospital, police said late Sunday that his father alerted authorities who located the pair 20 kms (12 miles) south of Exmouth in Western Australia.
The cause of death is yet to be determined but reports said he was severely dehydrated. It was the second death in six weeks in Australia’s harsh interior after a 25-year-old man died of thirst in remote southeast Queensland state last month, prompting police warnings about the risks of the desert.