Wagga Bishop Hopes Commission Will Rebuild Trust

ABC News
December 10, 2012

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-11/bishops-rc/4420602?§ion=news

The Bishop of Wagga Wagga is moving to reassure Catholics and non Catholics the church is making a genuine response to the national inquiry into institutionalised child sexual abuse.

Bishop Gerard Hanna attended the recent Australian Catholic Bishops Conference which discussed the Royal Commission.

Terms of reference are yet to be released, but the Bishop says the church will co-operate fully.

Bishop Hanna says the inquiry has probably been needed for a long time.

"There was this general feeling that this is good, it has to happen," he said.

"And it will be an opportunity for people who have suffered and been victimised that have never come forward, now they may feel they can come forward and get a compassionate hearing and justice and the beginning for many of them of a healing process.

"We have to support that."

Bishop Hanna is hoping the national inquiry will rebuild the trust of local Catholics critical of the Church's response.

A Riverina child sexual assault counsellor, Kay Humphreys, a Catholic, says lay people do not believe the church hierarchy is showing compassion for the victims of child sexual assault and they feel a sense of outrage.

Bishop Hanna says a new council to involve laity and non Catholics is being set up to respond to the Royal Commission appropriately.

"I can understand people feeling that way and you have to respect the views of those who are dealing with the victims directly," he said.

"I would hope that the Royal Commission will give us an opportunity to reinforce the integrity of our processes, and an opportunity for these processes to be scrutinised with greater objectivity, so that people may well come to believe in the integrity that we bring to this whole question."

Bishop Hanna says the inquiry is an opportunity for the church to be objectively scrutinised.

Bishop Hanna says despite the church's efforts, it has not succeeded in convincing the broader public that its processes are satisfactory or effective.

"Yes it's difficult to know what you can do, but you have to act with integrity," he said.

"We believe we have.

"We've put together a council of lay people, experts, Catholic, and non Catholic, who will then look at the whole question.

"As they Royal Commission unfolds, they'll be able to give us advice as to how we respond to that."

Bishop Hanna says the church has done a lot to ensure it responds to abuse allegations against priests, but is not able to say there are no current perpetrators.

He says there is no need to consider changes to celibacy laws in response to the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse.

Bishop Hanna says the statistics show the great majority of abuse occurs within a family or extended family.

Bishop Hanna says there is nothing to indicate that celibacy is the cause of sexual abuse.

"It's just as foolish to say that the problem will be solved by lifting the celibacy regulations as seeing marriage as the solution," he said.

"The number of sexual abuse cases that you find through institutional authorities is a much lesser percentage than the overall occurrence of sexual than the family."