AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
August 22, 2014
Jane Lee, Cameron Houston
The way the Catholic Church awards money to victims of clerical abuse has been questioned at the royal commission.
In the final hearing of the week, David Curtain, QC, the chairman of the Melbourne Response’s compensation panel, outlined the calculations used to determine compensation for victims.
Mr Curtain revealed that:
* Victims whose abuse involved “sexual penetration” are paid the highest level
* The panel does not discuss with victims how they arrived at a figure below the current $75,000 cap
* The impact of the abuse on the individual victim is considered above the level of abuse suffered
* There is no cap on the amount of counselling the Church will fund via Carelink or external psychologists
* Victims pay for their own lawyers to be with them at the discussion
* The panel’s decision is not reviewable, and its discussion with victims is not recorded except for the amount agreed on and whether victims want to receive a letter of apology from the Archbishop
The Church has given hundreds of victims ex gratia payments since the Melbourne Response was established in 1996 by Cardinal George Pell, who was then Archbishop of the Melbourne Archdiocese. The royal commission is investigating the scheme’s effectiveness as it considers a national redress scheme for victims of sexual abuse.
Despite criticisms of the Melbourne Response, Mr Curtain said only a minority of victims were unsatisfied with the process.
He said it would not be “appropriate” to comment on the adequacy of the $75,000 cap for victims’ suffering but said “whatever people get is not enough” to compensate them. The payment was “financial recognition of a wrong done”.
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.