AUSTRALIA
ABC News
Advocates for victims of child abuse have hit out at the Archbishop of the Canberra-Goulburn region over his absence at a healing service at Marist College, labelling his decision “appalling”.
Last night, the all-boys Catholic school in Canberra’s south held a liturgy for abuse survivors, at which its headmaster and the Provincial of the Marist Brothers apologised for abuse that took place at the school, and subsequent failures to deal with it effectively.
Many instances of abuse committed by Marist staff in the 1970s and 1980s were examined during hearings at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse.
“The fact that the Archbishop had better things to do last night is appalling,” anti-child abuse advocate and former Marist student Damian De Marco said.
“He is in charge of the safety of every child in his archdiocese, he is responsible for the Institute of Safeguarding.”
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.