AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury
By STEPHEN JONES
Nov. 12, 2012
I believe the federal Government should set up a Royal Commission into systemic child abuse, and cover up by churches and others. I don’t rush quickly to the call for Royal Commissions. They have great investigative powers which, when combined with the constant scrutiny of the mass media, can alter the course of public opinion and personal reputation well in advance of any findings and recommendations being recorded. I believe they should only be used where it is clear that policing and judicial determination have failed. It appears that this is such a case.
This is not because there is some grand conspiracy between police, courts and church organisations. I don’t believe this is the case. But what is clear, and in some instances admitted, is that the Church organisations actively sort to cover up their offences.
Cardinal Pell attempted to explain this in an interview with The Weekend Australia:
“It wasn’t just the Catholic Church that hoped (an abusive priest) would amend their conduct and give them a home somewhere else,” he said.
“Back in those days, they were entitled to think of pedophilia as simply a sin that you would repent of. They didn’t realise that in the worst cases it was an addiction, a raging addiction.”
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