AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail
Terry Sweetman From: The Sunday Mail (Qld) June 02, 2013
IT IS a sad state of affairs when even the faithful send me jokes and cartoons reinforcing coarse images of priests as pedophiles and adulterers.
But that’s one measure of the harm done to the institution of the Catholic Church by its lax oversight of its servants, its infamous attempts to cover up their sins and its need to put its own reputation above the care of children and the delivery of justice.
Like many, I was pretty unimpressed with evidence and the demeanor of Archbishop George Pell before the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse.
Suffice to say, it will be interesting to see if he can demonstrate more conviction when he appears before the Federal Royal Commission with its powers of coercion.
Time (and cross-examination) will tell if the representatives of other institutions (including other churches) are any better at explaining the betrayal of children and others and their failure to properly atone or make amends.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.