Catholic Church's Towards Healing Scheme in Spotlight at Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse

By Emily Bourke
The ABC News
December 9, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-09/royal-commission-into-child-sexual-abuse-to-start-in-sydney/5143220


The Catholic Church's response to abuse complaints will be under the spotlight at the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse which gets underway today in Sydney.

The hearings will focus on the Towards Healing process, established by the church in 1996 to respond to complaints of abuse against the clergy.

Sexual abuse victims and their lawyers maintain it is a process that re-traumatises survivors and should be scrapped altogether.

Starting today, four victims are expected to give evidence relating to allegations against priests and brothers of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, the Diocese of Lismore and the Marist Brothers.

The commission's chief executive, Janette Dines, says the four people giving evidence are courageous.

"The individuals all had very different experiences in going through the Towards Healing process," she said.

"And that's part of the usefulness of hearing the four stories together.

"It gives us the opportunity to look at how the application of the policies and procedures of Towards Healing might differ when you apply them to different circumstances and how different amounts of compensation or different conditions on confidentiality requirements might be attached to an individual."

Ms Dines says common themes expressed in the submissions are complaints about power imbalances under the Towards Healing program and a lack of consistency and transparency in the way victims were treated.

Church already working to reform Towards Healing

The church has already acknowledged the shortcomings of the Towards Healing scheme and has put forward a blue print for reform.

Ms Dines says 40 per cent of correspondence to her staff relates to complaints against the Catholic Church.

She says the church is a key focus of the royal commission's work.

"We've been very aware from the start that the Catholic Church was a particular focus of concern in the community and there was no denying that the public scrutiny had very often centred on the Catholic Church," she said.

"We've also been very aware of the breadth of our terms of reference and we've been asked to look at all sorts of institutions."

Francis Sullivan is part of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council which is coordinating the Catholic Church's response to the royal commission.

"The Catholic Church has to be battered as much as it needs to be battered for its history," he said.

"You can't run away from your history. What you can do is show people that you have learnt from the history, that you're listening and hearing what victims are saying and that you are putting in place real actions that reflect your credibility in this debate."

He says the days of the Catholic Church investigating itself are over and an independent body needs to be established to rule on compensation.