Melbourne scheme not independent of church

Daily Mail
September 14, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-3233334/Melbourne-Response-not-independent-inquiry.html

The Catholic Church's much-criticised Melbourne Response is not independent, is overly legalistic and should leave it to the police to advise abuse victims about potential charges, an inquiry has found.

The child abuse royal commission has found the Melbourne Response scheme is not sufficiently independent of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, and its independent commissioners, Carelink counselling and compensation panel are not necessarily independent of each other.

They also share the same lawyers as the archdiocese, creating a potential for conflict and difficulties with maintaining confidentiality, it said.

"We consider that a scheme that is heavily dominated by lawyers and traditional legal process is unlikely to provide the most supportive environment for complainants," its report released on Monday said.

It found an independent Melbourne Response commissioner, Peter O'Callaghan QC, discouraged two abuse victims from going to the police by providing advice about the process.

"Advice about the approach that the police might take to any prosecution, and the likely outcome, should have been left to the police," the commission said. "They were the body with all of the relevant information."

It said administrators or decision makers in a redress scheme, even if they are independent, should never give advice about likely outcomes of a report to police.

Critics say the Melbourne Response has re-traumatised victims of pedophile priests, is overly legalistic and has low compensation payouts.

Former Melbourne archbishop Cardinal George Pell has accepted that introducing the Melbourne Response when he did in 1996 meant the church's Towards Healing scheme, which was brought in a few weeks later, was not a national response, the commission noted.

Similar complaints may not be treated in a similar manner and it meant consistent outcomes would not be achieved.

"Because Towards Healing did not cap the financial payment, it may have and has resulted in more generous payments to survivors than the Melbourne Response, which was initially capped at $50,000," the commission said. Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart is considering increasing or removing the current $75,000 cap on payouts.

Anthony and Christine Foster, whose two daughters were abused by Father Kevin O'Donnell, went outside the Melbourne Response and after almost a decade of civil litigation received $750,000 in compensation.

The commission is "troubled" that the church twice refused to dismiss Father Michael Glennon from the priesthood before finally agreeing in 1998 - 20 years after his first conviction for child sex abuse.

"We are concerned that the application of canon law by members of the relevant dicasteries of the Holy See operated to obfuscate the removal of priest who had been convicted of child sexual abuse from the clerical state," it said.