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| Archbishop Admits Church Too Slow to Act against Abuse
By Cath McAloon
ABC News
May 20, 2013
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-20/archbishop-testifies-before-abuse-inquiry/4699832
[with video]
Victoria's most senior Catholic has told a parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse the church was too slow to act in the past when dealing with paedophile priests.
The Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, has given evidence at the inquiry, which is investigating the church's response to allegations of abuse.
He apologised for the church's failure to recognise and deal with allegations of sexual abuse, describing it as one of the darkest periods in the church's history.
He told the committee there had been terrible failings in the church's response to sexual abuse allegations.
We failed to recognise abuse was occurring.
We failed to recognise we had paedophiles in our midst.
Archbishop Denis Hart
Archbishop Hart admitted that a former Archbishop of Melbourne, Frank Little, covered up allegations of abuse and moved known paedophiles to other parishes.
"We failed to recognise that abuse was occurring," he said.
"We failed to recognise that we had paedophiles in our midst.
"We failed to really listen to people when they came forward to complain."
Archbishop Hart also admitted that in one case it took the church 18 years to de-frock a paedophile priest.
But he said "it was better late than never".
He said he and the church wish they could have acted earlier.
"We were restricted by the fact that the law had to be changed," he said.
"We were restricted by him (the priest) being in prison."
He also acknowledged that his predecessors, had kept information about two paedophile priests secret and moved them to other parishes.
He said the Archbishop made wrong decisions which had devastating consequences.
"I believe that's an awful blight on the church and that's why I'm here today," he said.
"(And) to put my anguish and pain and anger about this to the committee."
He denied the church was more concerned with protecting its image than helping victims of abuse.
He says the church has since made changes to its processes and structure to ensure children are better protected.
The Archbishop was also asked about compensation for victims.
Committee member Andrea Coote said many victims felt the church's response to allegations of abuse had been to spend money on lawyers and spin doctors.
Archbishop Hart said the establishment of a group to deal with complaints, was a sincere attempt to help victims move forward.
"A number of people have been in touch with me to say how the Melbourne response has helped them," he told the inquiry.
"I haven't kept records, but I know of those personal contacts and I know that there must therefore be a balance of things."
Earlier, he told the inquiry the church could do better to protect whistleblowers raising concerns about paedophile behaviour at its institutions.
He said the church was working to improve its processes to help whistleblowers.
"I always think there's room for improvement," he said.
"I do think that one of the things that we want to do together as a community and church is really to identify how we can do things better."
The inquiry has so far received 405 submissions, 61 of those are form organisations, while 344 are individual submissions.
It will not be accepting any submissions after June 7.
At the start of today's hearing the inquiry was told Cardinal George Pell would appear next week.
It will be the final week of hearings. The committee has already sat in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.
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