AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times
April 5, 2013
Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.
Catholic Church leaders in Australia were contributing to the ostracism and scapegoating of child sex abuse victims, showing little leadership and little ”will to know”, the inquiry into how churches handled sex abuse has heard.
Edith Cowan University social justice professor Caroline Taylor said church leaders, as well as judges and lawyers, too readily followed misleading stereotypes that minimised child abuse.
”The greatest insurance policy offenders have is the ignorance of the community,” Professor Taylor said on Thursday. ”I don’t believe the Catholic hierarchy has changed its attitude … I haven’t seen that probity and will to know, which means setting aside preconceived ideas and being open to learn. It takes courage.”
When she had suggested ways to help educate the community, she had been ”severely rebuffed”.
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