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	Priests Need Support: Driver By Colin James news.com.au [Australia] October 27, 2006 http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20652308-5006301,00.html Anglican priests need more support to help them recover from revelations about child sex abuse by some of their colleagues, says Adelaide Archbishop Jeffrey Driver. In his opening address to the annual Synod of the Diocese of Adelaide, Archbishop Driver last night said priests also needed to regain confidence in a church leadership widely criticised over its handling of child abuse allegations over several decades. Outlining a strategy to recover from the revelations, he said the diocese not only had to help its priests, but also needed to confront significant budget cuts to pay for child abuse compensation claims totalling millions of dollars. "We are part of a diocese in which, sadly, there has been low morale among the clergy and many good and faithful clergy members are struggling to know how to exercise their ministry in the changed church to which they now belong," he said. "(There also is a need) to restore trust in the office of the archbishop, both within the diocesan family and broader community." Archbishop Driver said it was important the Anglican Church demonstrated to the public that it would be more active in dealing with sexual abuse claims. His comments followed a critical report commissioned by the church into its handling of child abuse allegations. The report found Adelaide priests who attempted to report child abuse were "bullied, threatened and effectively silenced by church officials for attempting to report the matter, or even attempting to enquire about it". "This meant the priest's attempt to do something about the matter was effectively quashed," it said. "Some clergy said they had been dismissed, even quite aggressively, when seeking in the past to find out more about reporting (of child abuse) issues," it said. "In some cases, this bullying by priests, by church officials, for attempting to report the abuse of a child or adult constituted abuse and harassment in itself."
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