AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Chris McGillion and Damian Grace
Since its inception, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been a lightning rod for longstanding disillusionment with the Catholic Church.
Among its critics, an impression seems to have formed that the Catholic Church has been exceptional among the institutions examined in regard to child sexual abuse and that it is, in fact, rotten to its core and in desperate need of root and branch reform.
Given the commission concludes its hearings on Catholic organisations this week, it is timely to consider whether what has been learned over the past 3½ years supports or challenges this impression.
Of the 5866 survivors who have testified before the commission in private sessions to date, 40 per cent have told of abuse in Catholic institutions. This compares with 8 per cent who have reported abuse in Anglican institutions and 4 per cent in those run by the Salvation Army. On the face of it, these figures seem to rest the case.
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