AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline
[with video]
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 08/08/2013
Reporter: Tony Jones
The CEO of the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan discusses the role of the Catholic Church’s insurance company in how the church handled cases of sexual abuse by clergy.
Transcript
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Joining us in the studio is the chief executive officer of the Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan.
Thanks for being here.
FRANCIS SULLIVAN, CEO, TRUTH, JUSTICE & HEALING COUNCIL: Thank you for having me.
TONY JONES: Now you just heard Robert Grant at the end of that interview saying that these high-level committees, set up really to create Towards Healing, that he’d never heard people being concerned about the well-being of victims. They were concerned about Church liability and about priests who’d been accused. That’s a pretty shameful indictment of the process, isn’t it?
FRANCIS SULLIVAN: Well it’s upsetting to hear that. But I think one thing’s important: Towards Healing was a seismic shift from previous protocols the Church had in place and those protocols had the Church’s interests first. Towards Healing is all about putting the victim’s interest first and of course …
TONY JONES: Well not according to Robert Grant. It’s about putting the lawyers first, according to him. Well, the lawyers seem to have dictated the process of what actually happened in Towards Healing, so he was saying it’s interest, the financial interest, the liability, the culpability of the Church that was really at stake here.
FRANCIS SULLIVAN: Accepting what he says, I mean, we have to look at the proof of the document. I think Dr Grant was talking about meetings he was involved with as a consultant in the working up of what became the document. So there are many interests around the table and I accept what he’s saying; there would have been insurance interests at the table. But the document that the bishops and the religious leaders of Australia signed off historically in 1996 talks about: it’s based on the victim. Secondly, Tony, it’s interesting …
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