AUSTRALIA
Bay Post
The Royal Commission into child sex abuse hasn’t even begun but it is already obvious how much the political and social landscape has shifted, and how exposed some institutions may be as a result.
This week’s appearance at the Victorian child sex abuse inquiry by Catholic Cardinal George Pell was especially revealing.
Gone was the bluster and confidence of the past, and in its place was a subdued church leader who appeared uncharacteristically uncertain.
True, his critics wasted no time writing off his apologies and contrition as “a cynical exercise in damage control”, but that overlooks the extraordinary reality that the church has, at last, been put on the spot by a more powerful secular authority and forced to face some hard facts.
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