LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian
May 30, 2018
By Melissa Davey
‘Survivors deserve justice and healing’, says spokesman
Catholic church opts in to national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse, following the Anglican church which signed up on Sunday.
The Catholic Church has signed up to the federal government’s national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse.
The scheme will take effect from July and requires the states and territories as well as non-government organisations such as churches and charities to opt into the scheme and agree to pay victims abused within their organisations up to $150,000 compensation.
Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse found 7% of Australia’s Catholic priests were accused of abusing children in the six decades since 1950. Up to 15% of priests in some dioceses were alleged perpetrators between 1950 and 2015, the commission found.
Almost 2,500 survivors told the commission about sexual abuse in an institution managed by the Catholic church, representing 61.8% of all survivors who reported sexual abuse in a religious institution.
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.