Australian Inquiry into Child Sex abuse Slams Catholic Church

Pope Francis may be trying to possibly change the tone of the Catholic Church's message, but in one area he has failed to make needed changes and to remove high members of the hierarchy from office: the world wide sex abuse scandal.  Active participants in the cover up remain "princes of the church" and continue to mouth disingenuous statements of feigned piety.  In reality, the ought to be behind bars or at a minimum, thrown from office in disgrace.  The Australian investigation into child sex abuse in that nation not surprisingly slams the Catholic Church and its failure to even remotely protect children and youths.  Here are highlights from The Age on the investigation's findings:

The state government’s eagerly awaited report on clergy child sex abuse recommends sweeping changes to laws behind which the Catholic Church has sheltered, and accused its leaders of  trivialising the problem as a ‘‘short-term embarrassment’’.

Launching the report in State Parliament, inquiry chairwoman Georgie Crozier spoke of ‘‘a betrayal beyond comprehension’’ and children suffering ‘‘unimaginable harm’’.

The report into how the churches handled clergy sexual abuse wants to establish a new crime for people in authority knowingly to put a child a risk, and to make it a crime not to report suspected child abuse or to leave a child at risk. The recommendation does not extend to what priests hear in the confessional.

Grooming a child or parents should be a crime, child abuse should be excluded from the statute of limitations, and the present church systems of dealing with victims in-house should be replaced by an independent government-monitored authority, suggests the report, Betrayal of Trust.

Committee member Andrea Coote said the Catholic Church had minimised and trivialised the problem, kept the community in ignorance, and ensured that perpetrators were not held accountable, so that children continued to be abused.

‘‘With the notable exception of Father Kevin Dillon [the Geelong priest who gave evidence], we found that today’s church leaders view the current question of abuse of children as a ‘short-term embarrassment’ which should be handled as quickly as possible to cause the least damage to the church’s standing. They do not see the problems as raising questions about the church’s own culture,’’ she said.

The betrayal of trust at a number of levels of the church hierarchy was in such contrast to the religion’s stated values that many Catholics found the betrayal almost impossible to acknowledge, Ms Coote said.

Besides recommending new criminal laws, the report suggests way to make it easier for victims to seek justice. These include ensuring organisations are held accountable and vicariously liable, and that any organisation receiving government funding or tax exemptions are incorporated and insured. This would eliminate the so-called Ellis defence, by which the church successfully argued it was not an entity that could be sued.

“The leaders of the Catholic Church who were involved some of these actions ought to absolutely hang their heads in shame, and that’s the least of what they should do.’’

 

Other news outlets in Australia also have coverage.   Sex abuse by clergy is not limited to the Catholic Church, but in no other denomination has there been such a coordinated world wide cover up.   In part, I believe this is due to the Church's celibacy requirement and the Church's absolute obsession with all things sexual.   As for those in the pews - the sheeple - they need to pull their heads out of the sand (or perhaps their asses) and face the truth about the utter moral bankruptcy of most of the Church hierarchy.  As for Pope Francis, he needs to start removing clerics from office on a wide scale.