Church Sex Abuse Reforms Slammed

Sky News
October 3, 2013

http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=911759

Catholic Church reforms to its handling of clerical abuse claims are an attempt to maintain private control of a compensation scheme for victims of abuse, a NSW MP says.

The church announced on Thursday that it was looking at a separation of its pastoral and compensation roles when it came to dealing with victims of child sexual abuse.

Under the proposal the reparation elements of the church's Towards Healing process could work alongside any future national compensation scheme.

Towards Healing was set up by the church in 1996 to deal with complaints from abuse victims and to pay compensation.

That process is now being scrutinised by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which on Thursday made public submissions it has received on the efficacy of the Towards Healing process.

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge is calling for legal changes to the property trust status of the Catholic Church in Australia.

He told AAP the reform proposals were the 'church continuing to want to have private control over compensation payments to victims of its abuse.'

Mr Shoebridge hopes to introduce a Roman Catholic Church Trust Property Amendment (Justice for Victims) Bill to the NSW parliament this year.

'The Catholic Church continues to ignore the elephant in the room which is the legal immunity their property has from victims suits through the property trust structure.'

The CEO of the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council Francis Sullivan said that while the church supported calls for a national scheme, it could take many years to establish and 'might face significant constitutional hurdles'.

'This is why the church is going ahead with developing its own reform proposals which could be put in place as soon as late next year and could work alongside any future national scheme,' he said in a statement.

The council was set up by the Catholic Church to coordinate its responses to the Royal Commission.

The public submissions to the Royal Commission on the Towards Healing process came from law firms, victims organisations such as Bravehearts and Broken Rites, the NSW Ombudsman as well as concerned Catholics.

Among them was one from Monash University researcher Judy Courtin whose doctoral thesis is on the Catholic Church's response to victims of sexual assault.

Her submission said that a digest of lawyers' views and opinions showed that the Towards Healing process did not provide a healing environment for victims, 'rather it causes harm and damages victims'.

She also said that in the Towards Healing process 'primary victims felt stripped bare, suicidal and depressed.

Mr Sullivan said on Thursday the reform proposals from the council, which would be presented to Catholic Church leaders in early 2014, recognised that the church had to do better in dealing with victims of sexual abuse.