AUSTRALIA
The Age
October 3, 2013
Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.
The Catholic Church will create independent strategies for handling clergy sex abuse complaints by the end of next year in response to widespread criticisms, it has told the royal commission.
In its formal submission, to be released on Thursday, the church says it is happy to contribute to an independent national compensation scheme if that is what the commission investigating child sex abuse in institutions recommends.
But that would take years, whereas the church recognises it needs to act immediately to make its response more open, accountable and independent, according to Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council.
“We don’t want the legal mindset to contaminate what should be a pastoral response,” Mr Sullivan told Fairfax Media.
The council was set up by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and religious orders after the royal commission was announced late last year to co-ordinate the church’s response. It represents 31 Australian dioceses and more than 100 orders.
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.