Editorial: Only Change in Catholic Church Can End Miserable Tale of Hurt

Courier-Mail
February 8, 2017

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FAITH is a curious thing, and when it is betrayed, a person can be broken.

For the past four years The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard harrowing tales of how trusted people beat, raped, tortured, starved, humiliated and threatened children.

The commission process has been awful. There has been testimony of not just physical abuse but how entire world views had been ripped apart.

This week the Catholic Church has been in the spotlight again and for the first time there has been calculation of the profound secrecy, isolation and spiritual hurt inflicted over 60 years.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, ahead of his giving evidence, warned his flock of “grim moments and some truths”.

Yesterday he acknowledged that the church acted as a law unto itself.