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	The Archbishop Apologises, but Later Rather Than Sooner WAToday July 5, 2010 http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/editorial/the-archbishop-apologises-but-later-rather-than-sooner-20100704-zvrf.html THERE is no doubt that the Catholic Archibishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, is a man of deep conscience as well as strong personal conviction. For him, the terrible history of troubles within his church and within his own archdiocese have become a matter requiring acknowledgment and warranting apology. At the weekend, the archbishop circulated to all his 219 parishes an extraordinary document, A Pastoral Letter on Sexual Abuse, that left no doubts of his feelings of profound shame at the criminal offences and breaches of vows committed by various priests over many years. "How can we Catholics not be shocked and ashamed?" Archbishop Hart wrote. "For me personally, this is one of the saddest times of my 43 years in the Catholic priesthood." Indeed, reflecting the wider church's own admission of internal sins, the archbishop has gone further in his use of direct language to castigate the perpetrators of sexual abuse: the words "crime" and "criminal offences" carry more solemn, more meaningful weight, as does the force of one particular paragraph: "Sexual abuse in any form, and any attempt to conceal it, is a grave evil and is totally unacceptable. As Christ's church, we must face up to the truth of these revelations and not attempt to disguise, diminish or avoid in any way the actions of priests and religious who have betrayed their sacred trust." In his pastoral letter and in an article published in this newspaper on Saturday, Archbishop Hart expressed his "deep sorrow" and offered "a sincere and unreserved apology to all those victims who have suffered the pain and humiliation of sexual abuse and to their families". Although it is a pity such emotions could not have been expressed many years earlier - particularly during the 1970s, which Archbishop Hart described as the worst period of reported sexual abuse cases - some comfort can be had from the fact the church is at least now giving due acknowledgment to the appalling scandals that in the past it has sometimes tried to cover up. But, as history has proved, it is always a far better thing to recognise a wrong and apologise for it than it is to ignore it - as demonstrated by the overwhelming public emotional responses to the Australian Parliament's apology to the stolen generations and, more recently, the British government's apology to the families of those killed in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday. That Melbourne's Archbishop has taken this step is not entirely self-motivated, but, rather, has been partly instigated by recent articles in The Age dealing with sexual abuse in the church but, in particular, by the relentless tide of revelation that has swept across the church in Europe and the United States this year. The phrase "terrifying crisis", far from being sensationalist, was, in fact, used by Pope Benedict XVI. How else to describe a culture that, for years and years, has worked more in the favour of the perpetrator than the concerns of the victim - in which many offenders were not defrocked or charged, but simply moved on, free to re-offend and cause new hurt, anguish and shame? In March, after fresh allegations of sexual abuse of children in a German diocese, it was revealed that the Pope, in earlier roles including as an archbishop in Germany, had failed to discipline many clergy he knew who committed sexual abuse. With the church's inherent complicity spreading to the top, denial could no longer serve as an excuse. As The Age has noted, a church that teaches absolute moral values must act according to those same values. While Archbishop Hart's pastoral letter goes some way to reinforcing the Catholic Church's improved mood of mea culpa, it still contains elements of self-defence that are open to question. For example, the archbishop defends the controversial Melbourne Response protocols (set up by his predecessor, Archbishop George Pell, in 1996) in which complaints of sexual abuse are tested by an independent commissioner, with a compensation cap of $75,000. Archbishop Hart credits Melbourne Response with compensating almost 300 victims of sexual abuse in incidents that occurred 30 and up to 80 years ago, but which have declined since the 1970s. While the Archbishop said he believes the Melbourne Response "goes a long way towards addressing [the issue] compassionately", and although some consolation can be gained from the fall in cases identified, its methodology has been criticised by victims and the police. Since Archbishop Hart and his church have now publicly accepted that sex abuse issues are, in the first instance, crimes, perhaps a full review of how they are dealt with would be a necessary next step.
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