AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
March 10, 2018
By Ben Schneiders, Royce Millar and Chris Vedelago
The Catholic Church has failed to fully accept the horrific impact of child sexual abuse and its own role in a tragedy of “epic proportions”, a member of the royal commission has said.
In a surprisingly frank speech, Robert Fitzgerald – one of the six commissioners that oversaw the recently completed, five year inquiry – has slammed the church’s approach to abuse survivors, and its failure to tackle practices that contributed to the scourge of abuse and the secrecy around it.
Speaking at a Catholic Social Services Conference in Melbourne late last month, Mr Fitzgerald highlighted the ‘’disease’’ of ‘clericalism’ – the belief that the church’s male-only clergy are mystical beings, accountable to the Pope and to God, not to civil society or church laity.
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