Culture of Secrecy and Cover-Up, Hart Admits

By Henrietta Cook
The Age
May 20, 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/culture-of-secrecy-and-coverup-hart-admits-20130520-2jwce.html

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart fronts the parliamentary inquiry into child abuse by churches.

[with video]

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart says the Catholic church has been slow to act on child abuse and admits there has been a culture of "secrecy and cover-up".

Archbishop Hart told a packed gallery at the parliamentary inquiry into child abuse by churches that taking 18 years to act on ejecting a convicted paedophile priest was "better late than never".

He said paedophile priests had been moved on to innocent parishes but practices had improved since 1996.

"I believe that is an awful blight on the church."

He said the church was "too slow to realise what was going on" because they were dealing with cunning and devious criminals.

He told a packed gallery at the parliamentary committee that he was expressing his "anguish and pain".

He was questioned about Catholic priest Desmond Gannon, who was convicted of child sex abuse in 1993 but only started his laicisation in 2011.

"I would say we did what we could, I wish it had been earlier."

He said letting a priest charged with child sex offences be the spiritual director of another priest was "highly inappropriate."

The state's most senior Catholic clergy member insisted the church had a zero tolerance abuse to child abuse.

He said he had not received any media advice from consultants before fronting the inquiry.