AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JASON GORDON July 2, 2013
THE Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese allegedly knew about paedophilia within its ranks as early as 1953.
Yesterday, 60 years later, and with hundreds more children bearing the scars of sexual abuse, a public courtroom heard those claims for the first time, along with an acknowledgment from the Church that such injustice not only happened, but was allowed to perpetuate.
Some in the public gallery openly wept when Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC and counsel assisting, Julia Lonergan SC, read their opening addresses to the packed Newcastle courtroom.
Ms Cunneen, in her opening address, described the sexual abuse of children as “abhorrent”. When it is committed by a priest, it is “a gross breach of trust of the highest magnitude”.
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