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	I Would've Apologised: Rev Costello Sydney Morning Herald April 5, 2010 http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/i-wouldve-apologised-rev-costello-20100405-rml5.html AUSTRALIA -- Prominent Australian church leader Tim Costello says he would apologise to victims of sexual abuse by clerics if he were in Pope Benedict XVI's position. The pontiff was under pressure to condemn predator priests in his annual Easter Sunday message, but he failed to do so. Reverend Costello, the former president of the Baptist Union of Australia, said on Monday he would have publicly apologised. "If I was in that situation, that's exactly what I would do," he told ABC TV. "One, because it's right to do, first and foremost. Secondly, because there can be no healing if there is not openness." Rev Costello said victims of clergy abuse needed to feel they were being heard and responded to. For too long, the church had ignored them, he added. "For all churches, we were slow to perhaps really deal thoroughly with full repentance about this terrible abuse," Reverend Costello said. "All of us have been complicit in this, with a misguided loyalty to institution and church and ... there were really bad mistakes made." He said all churches needed to keep working on how they handled sexual abuse allegations.
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