AUSTRALIA
The Age
November 13, 2013
Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.
A government report on child abuse has savaged the Catholic Church, recommending a new independent mechanism for pursuing justice and new criminal laws.
Betrayal of Trust, the report of the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sexual abuse, recommends a new law making it a criminal offence to allow a child to remain at risk, plus making it
The report also recommends excluding child abuse from the statute of limitations because victims can take decades to come forward.
It says organisations should be held accountable for their legal duty to protect children and should be vicariously liable – an indication the committee wants to end the so-called Ellis defence by which the Catholic Church argues it cannot be sued.
Committee member Andrea Coote said the committee found current Catholic leadership saw child sexual abuse as a short-term embarrassment and not as a reason to question their own culture. “A sliding morality has emerged in the Catholic Church,” Ms Coote said.
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