Clergy Sex Abuse Report Urges New Laws to Punish Perpetrators
By Barney Zwartz
The state government's report on clergy child sex abuse recommends sweeping changes to laws behind which the Catholic Church has sheltered, and accuses its leaders of trivialising the problem as a ''short-term embarrassment''. Inquiry chairwoman Georgie Crozier spoke of ''a betrayal beyond comprehension'' and children suffering ''unimaginable harm''. Launching the report in State Parliament on Wednesday, she said the inquiry had referred 135 previously unreported claims of child sex abuse to the police. The report, Betrayal of Trust, wants to establish a new crime when people in authority knowingly put a child at risk. It wants to make it a crime to leave a child at risk or not report abuse, including for clergy, but does not recommend ending the exemption for the confessional. Grooming a child or parents should be a crime, child abuse should be excluded from the civil law's statute of limitations, and the present church systems of dealing with victims in-house should be replaced by an independent authority funded by the churches, the report says. Premier Denis Napthine said the government would act quickly to begin drafting legislation reflecting the recommendations. He said the abuse detailed in the report was ''absolutely appalling'' and the religious leaders involved should hang their heads in shame. Committee member Andrea Coote said the Catholic Church had minimised and trivialised the problem, kept the community in ignorance and ensured perpetrators were not held accountable, which meant children continued to be abused. ''With the notable exception of Father Kevin Dillon [the Geelong priest who gave evidence], we found that today's church leaders view the current question of abuse of children as a 'short-term embarrassment' which should be handled as quickly as possible to cause the least damage to the church's standing. They do not see the problems as raising questions about the church's own culture,'' she said. The betrayal of trust was in such contrast to the religion's stated values that many Catholics found it almost impossible to acknowledge, she said. The church had developed a ''sliding morality'', compartmentalising the issues to avoid the ''obvious moral conflicts''. The church's own submission barely mentioned past church policies, and was expressed mainly in the present tense, she said. Committee member David O'Brien said the Catholic Church hierarchy stood condemned for its actions and inactions at the highest levels in Victoria over many years. Archbishop Denis Hart said abuse was not a short-term embarrassment, and although it could do better the church had made good progress. He supported the key recommendations but declined to endorse any in particular, saying these were complex legal matters. The report gave an opportunity for the church and other groups to ''move forward together''. Besides recommending new criminal laws, the report suggests ways to make it easier for victims to seek justice, including changes to make sure churches are held accountable and vicariously liable, and moves to eliminate the so-called Ellis defence, by which the church successfully argued it was not an entity that could be sued. Stephen Woods, who was sexually assaulted by convicted paedophile Christian Brother Robert Best, said: ''It's just the start, another step in the change in society … so that parliamentarians and victims will now be able to potentially change one corner of society.''
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