Ignorance led to abuse failure: Archbishop

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The Catholic Church’s failings on child sexual abuse were grounded in the “ignorance of a few”, the Archbishop of Hobart says.

Archbishop Julian Porteous agreed there had been a “massive failing” by leadership but that it was based in a lack of understanding about the issue and appropriate ways to deal with it.

“Effectively, ignorance of a few?” counsel assisting Gail Furness SC said at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Tuesday.

“Yes,” Archbishop Porteous replied.

The comments about a misunderstanding within the church angered Chrissie Foster, a mother of abuse victims.

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