Remove Church's "Rotten Apples"

By Dan Box
The Australian
October 25, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/remove-churchs-rotten-apples/story-e6frg6n6-1226746308180

A LAW professor who has worked closely with senior Catholic Church officials to review their response to child abuse by priests says some of its current leaders are "rotten apples" who need to be removed.

The University of Sydney's Professor Patrick Parkinson, who gave last night's annual Smith Lecture in Sydney, was recently cited by the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, as a leading authority who twice reviewed the church's Towards Healing protocols on child sexual abuse.

"There remain a few rotten apples in the church's fruit bowl, and they have yet to be called to account. Those who still apparently fail to understand their civic obligations as citizens of Australia in terms of co-operation with the police. Those whose greatest concern would appear to be to protect their organisation from scandal rather than the children in their care," he said.

Professor Parkinson, who has publicly withdrawn his support from the church's National Committee for Professional Standards over its handling of his 2010 review, said many within the church have acted honestly and with compassion.

"A minority has been resistant and, in their own dealings with victims, intransigent and obstructive," he told his audience at the Art Gallery of NSW.

While the situation had improved in recent years, the culture, structure and leadership of the Catholic church previously allowed child sex offenders to commit offences and to go unpunished, he said.

"It may be that the crisis of confidence and trust (in the church) will not pass until the present generation of leaders, who are tainted by their handling of matters earlier in their careers, have passed the baton on to a younger generation," he said.

"The church needs to find a way of throwing out its rotten apples, publicly rebuking or removing leaders from their positions if they have failed egregiously to do the right thing."

Last November, a day after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was announced, Cardinal Pell defended his church's Towards Healing protocols, established to handle any reports of such crimes.

"These were set in place, I think, in early '97. They have been twice reviewed by Professor Parkinson, one of the leading authorities in the area," he said.

Speaking last night, Professor Parkinson said Towards Healing was "a radical and proactive step at the time", although his reviews had uncovered evidence of "failures to implement it properly and long delays in the process".

While numerous improvements to the protocols have since been made, and others recently put forward by the church in a submission to the royal commission itself, Professor Parkinson has publicly withdrawn his support for the church in relation to the issue.

"I regard myself as a friend of the Catholic Church," he said last night.

"A retired Catholic bishop wrote to me about a year ago that 'if anyone in the church starts treating you as an enemy, they have really lost their way'.

"Some leaders have."