AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser
Joanne McCarthy
6 Feb 2017
10.03am The Royal Commission hearing has started. Justice Peter McClellan is presiding, with counsel assisting the Royal Commission, Gail Furness, making her opening remarks which are expected to take 90 minutes.
We are expecting her to provide us with shocking figures about the extent of child sexual abuse allegations within the Catholic Church going back to 1950.
So far, since 2013, the Royal Commission has conducted public hearings involving 116 institutions, ranging from churches to schools, sporting organisations, government departments and welfare groups.
Furness said it was “plain” the commission needed to examine “faith-based institutions” given that 60 per cent of survivors reported abuse in church-based organisations. Of those, nearly two-thirds were complaints relating to the Catholic Church. More than 37 per cent of all private sessions were about the Catholic Church.
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