Archbishop Denis Hart regrets hurt ...

By Padraic Murphy
Herald Sun
August 26, 2014

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/archbishop-denis-hart-regrets-hurt-caused-by-identical-apology-letters-to-clergy-abuse-victims/story-fni0fit3-1227036445863

Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart outside the inquiry.

Archbishop Denis Hart regrets hurt caused by identical apology letters to clergy abuse victims

THE Catholic Church sent victims of clergy sexual abuse almost identical apology form letters drafted by lawyers, the sex abuse Royal Commission has heard.

The letters - which were almost identical other than the names of the victim and the offending priest - were sent for more than a decade and signed at first by former Melbourne Archbishop George Pell and then his successor, Archbishop Denis Hart.

Each of the letters purported to be heart-felt apologies from the Archbishop, but were in fact prepared by staff in consultation with lawyers.

Under cross examination, Archbishop Hart today said he regretted hurt caused by the letters and said he had taken steps in the past year to ensure the letters were now more personal.

“The letters were very similar. It was never indicated to me that this was unhelpful,” Archbishop Hart said.

The state’s most senior Catholic admitted celibacy was difficult to cope with for some priests, but defended the practice.

“Celibacy in the western Church is part of the discipline,” Archbishop Hart said.

“Celibacy supported by prayer is a wonderful vocation and a wonderful engagement with people.”

Archbishop Hart said he also regretted telling a family whose daughter was the victim of horrific sexual abuse at a Melbourne school that their civil claim would be “strenuously defended”.

“It was always my intention that we do whatever we can to mediate,” Archbishop Hart said.

Archbishop Denis Hart told the royal commission yesterday a controversial cap of $75,000 compensation for victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy could be scrapped.

Archbishop Hart said he had appointed former Federal Court judge Donnell Ryan QC to review compensation levels offered to victims of abuse by clergy in the Melbourne archdiocese.

“(He will provide a report) on whether the cap should be increased or removed,” Archbishop Hart said.

Amid regular gasps from the public gallery yesterday, Archbishop Hart defended the church’s handling of sexual abuse cases.

“I think the church seeks all along to act according to justice, charity and compassion,” Archbishop Hart said.

But Archbishop Hart conceded that until 2001, priests found guilty by a court of sex crimes often kept their positions because the Vatican refused to expel them.

“There was a leaning in favour of a priest who might have been accused of something,” Archbishop Hart said.

“We found a conviction was not enough to have a priest laicised by Rome.”

But he said that since 2001, he had had the power to suspend priests and to recommend their defrocking.

“Every living priest who has been convicted of sexual misconduct has been referred to Rome for laicisation,” he said.

But he began directing suspended priests to cease wearing clerical garb only in 2011.

Earlier, the inquiry heard that since 1996 the church had offered treatment and counselling to 600 victims, 350 of whom were children when abused.

On average, about $12,000 was spent on this for each victim.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse has now concluded its Melbourne sitting.