AUSTRALIAN SEX ABUSE COMMISSION MUST NOT LECTURE ON STRUCTURE, THEOLOGY OR DOCTRINE

By Mark Brolly
Tablet (UK)
October 4, 2016

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/6212/0/australian-sex-abuse-commission-must-not-lecture-on-structure-theology-or-doctrine

Australia's long-running federal inquiry into child sexual abuse should not "trespass on the holy ground of religious belief and practice", Jesuit priest and law professor Fr Frank Brennan has warned.

Brennan, Professor of Law at Australian Catholic University, told the Freedom for Faith conference in Melbourne on 23 September that the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which has announced a "wrap-up" hearing into the Catholic Church for February 2017, "will need to be very careful about taking on the mantle of royal commission infallibility and lecturing to the Church about its structure, theology and doctrine in light of contemporary secular Australian notions of truth and right".

The Royal Commission, which was announced by then Prime Minister Julia Gillard in November 2012 and began work in early 2013, is to conclude with the delivery of its final report in December 2017.

Fr Brennan said he welcomed the assistance of the state to put the Church's house in order as the repeated evidence before the Commission had convinced him that the Church had been in serious disrepair, putting at risk many victims who could have been spared lives of living hell if only appropriate safeguards had been in place.

"The Commission's prying into the past actions of Church officials in no way constitutes and interference with the freedom of religion," he said. "Its spotlight is to be welcomed, provided only that it is shone on a truly representative sample of all institutions which have been found wanting.

"I sound this note of caution. No good will be served by a royal commission auspiced by the state telling a Church how it judges or complies with its theological doctrines and distinctive moral teachings. By all means, set universal standards of practice expected of all institutions dealing with children, but do not trespass on the holy ground of religious belief and practice.

"A new system of governance for the Catholic Church is well beyond the competence of a state-auspiced royal commission in Australia. We have a constitutional guarantee against an established church and thus it is not for the state to prescribe the structure nor to qualify or question the theological teachings of the Church. The commission must highlight failures in the Church to protect children and recommend standards of compliance for protection in accordance with Australian community values. But the Church must be left to its own resources to see how it can best comply consistent with its own theology and doctrine."

Fr Brennan's speech also covered implications for the Church of same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination legislation and dissent within the Church. He concluded that "we need to accord due respect and recognition to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion in this Age of Equality".