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	Melbourne Archbishop Apologises for Sex Abusers By Barney Zwartz and Matthew Knott Sydney Morning Herald July 3, 2010 http://www.smh.com.au/national/melbourne-archbishop-apologises-for-sex-abusers-20100702-zu5k.html THE Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne will apologise for crimes of sexual abuse by clergy and will acknowledge the church's shame and failures this weekend in a pastoral letter sent to every parish in the archdiocese. Every Catholic at a Mass in the Melbourne archdiocese this weekend will hear the extraordinary apology when the letter by Archbishop Denis Hart is read in every church in the 219 parishes. The Sydney archdiocese indicated yesterday it had no plans to follow suit and make a similarly strong apology. Archbishop Hart's letter uses language the church hierarchy has previously tip-toed around, describing sexual abuse against children as criminal and admitting that the abuse has caused a crisis of faith. 'The scourge of sexual abuse continues to cause great distress and in many cases a crisis of faith among Catholics,'' he writes. ''The criminal offences and breaches of vows committed by some priests and religious bring shame upon the entire church … For me personally, this is one of the saddest times of my 43 years in the Catholic priesthood. ''With great humility we acknowledge that the crimes of the perpetrators have done great harm. We recognise that in the past we have not always dealt appropriately with offenders. We have had to learn from our mistakes, and continue to do so.'' Katrina Lee, a spokeswoman for Cardinal George Pell, said he would not comment on Archbishop Hart's apology as it was a ''personal issue''. ''He's made comments about it in the past,'' she said. Cardinal Pell was widely criticised in 2002 when he said that abortion was a ''worse moral scandal'' than priests sexually abusing young people. Cardinal Pell supported Pope Benedict's apology to sexual abuse victims at World Youth Day in 2008 but has not made a similar apology. ''The evil of sexual abuse has no place in the Catholic Church and no one should doubt Benedict XVI's resolve to see it eradicated,'' he said in March. In his letter, Archbishop Hart defends the so-called Melbourne Response - the complaints system set up by Cardinal Pell while he was the Archbishop of Melbourne - in which compensation is capped at $75,000. Archbishop Hart says that since 1996 about 300 victims have been compensated, mostly for sexual abuse that took place between 30 and 80 years ago, and that there were few complaints of abuse after the 1970s. Those victims were abused by 86 offenders, 60 of them priests in the archdiocese, of whom 35 are dead. Yesterday, at the Downing Centre District Court, the Catholic priest John Sidney Denham was jailed for almost 20 years on child sex charges against 25 boys in NSW between 1968 and 1986. For most of those years he was a priest at St Pius X High School in Newcastle. During the trial, Denham described himself as a ''scumbag paedophile''. Chris McIsaac, the president of Broken Rites, a support group for victims of abuse in the Catholic church, said that Archbishop Hart's apology was too little too late. ''These people come to the table to apologise when they're forced to do so,'' she said. ''The real proof is, are victims being looked after? …With apologies must come action.'' She said the Catholic Church should be more pro-active in encouraging sexual abuse victims to come forward.
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