Australia Establishes New Anti-paedophile Commission with Bishops" Support

Vatican Insider
December 14, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/australia-pedofilia-paedophilia-20596/

The Bishop of Melbourne

A former Supreme Court judge and former President of the anti-corruption Commission will be chairing a special 10 member committee made up of bishops and lay experts such as jurists and psychologists. The new body will manage relations with Australia’s national inquiry commission which looks into how institutions have dealt with reported paedophilia cases.

The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Council - as the anti-corruption commission is called – will be headed by former judge Barry O’Keefe. This is according to a statement issued by the Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, President of the Australian Episcopal Conference which met in Sydney at the end of November.

“I am confident that the Royal Commission will enable an examination of the issues associated with child abuse nationally and the identification of measures for better preventing and responding to child abuse in all those institutions that work with children,” he said.

When asked whether he had been in touch with the Vatican regarding the inquiry, Mgr. Hart said this task lay with the Apostolic Nuncio, the Holy See’s ambassador to Australia. Coincidentally, two days ago the Vatican announced that English archbishop, Paul Gallagher would be substituting the Italian Giuseppe Lazzarotto as Nuncio to Australia. When he was Nuncio to Ireland, Lazzarotto had refused to collaborate with national inquiries into cases of sex abuse committed by members of the clergy.

Australia’s most in-depth inquiry into sex abuse against minors to date, will investigate churches, local governments, schools, charity organisations, community organisations such as boy scouts and sports clubs and the police.

The government’s decision comes as a result of pressure from victim support groups and various MPs who acted after declarations from numerous victims who came forward after years of silence.