New Catholic standards body to crack down on clergy: Royal Commission

By Rachel Browne
Age
February 20, 2017

http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-catholic-standards-body-to-crack-down-on-clergy-royal-commission-20170219-gugkff.html

Brisbane Catholic Archbishop Mark Coleridge. Photo by Melissa Adams

Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council. Photo by Jeremy Piper

A newly established national oversight body for the Catholic church will have the power to publicly name dioceses or religious orders which fail to meet its robust standards, a royal commission has heard.

The inquiry was told the new body, Catholic Professional Standards (CPS) Ltd, will also give bishops the authority to penalise priests who do not to comply with the new benchmarks.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that the body, formed late last year, would set, enforce and audit new standards on the protection of children and vulnerable people.

Neville Owen, the chairman of the Catholic church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council,  told the hearing CPS would publicly name the dioceses and orders which failed to comply.

"The teeth in this system is public reporting," he said. "The intention is public reporting will be the norm."

The inquiry heard the CPS board would have discretionary powers over public reporting.

Archbishop of Brisbane and vice president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Mark Coleridge told the hearing into church authorities the body would give bishops the power to penalise priests who failed to comply.

"These are serious sanctions, to stand a man aside or remove his faculties but given the seriousness of what we are discussing, they are measures I would consider," he said.

The commission heard CPS as well as a public national register with background information on Catholic ministry were still in the early stages of formation.

Justice Owen told the commission CPS would be "functionally independent" from the church although it will be funded by two Catholic peak bodies, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia.

Chief executive of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council Francis Sullivan said the ministry register and CPS would help hold the church to account in light of thousands allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy over decades

"Getting change in the Catholic church is heroic and it takes a lot of time to get small changes," he said.

"The real driver for this change has been the historic poor performance of church leaders.

"The real problem is that church the church leadership has never been held to account."

Archbishop Coleridge described the establishment of the CPS as "historic", saying it represented a "slow and painful shift of the culture".

"If it doesn't lead to cultural change, the danger is we go round and round and round and the appalling prospect is that the could end up where we started," he said.

The hearing, before Justice Peter McClellan​, continues.

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