Archbishop Would Grant Abusers Absolution

By Rebekah Ison
7 News
February 24, 2017

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/34488355/melbourne-archbishop-wants-redress-scheme/#page1

Melbourne's Catholic archdiocese is in talks with other churches about a redress scheme.

Sydney's Catholic Archbishop says he would have to forgive a child sex abuser at confession just as he would a terrorist or a murderer.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher on Friday told the sex abuse royal commission he didn't think he could make it a condition of absolution that a person incriminate themselves - even though he would strongly encourage them to get psychiatric help and hand themselves in.

"If they are genuinely contrite by every sign that I can see then I'll forgive their sin as I would a terrorist, a murderer, many other very grave matters," he said in Sydney on Friday.

"I do so probably feeling terribly sick inside about what might this guy do next."

Archbishop Fisher was one of the five metropolitan archbishops giving joint evidence at the royal commission.

The others said they would be willing to withhold absolution from a confessed child sex abuser.

Archbishop Fisher also told the royal commission he didn't think he would be able to report abuse revealed by a child in the confessional unless they consented.

"Which means that the child, to your knowledge, remains imperilled," chair Peter McClellan asked.

"Yes," Archbishop Fisher replied.

Data released at the start of the royal commission's three-week hearing revealed 4444 people made allegations of abuse to Australian Catholic authorities between 1980 and 2015.

Abuse survivors were angered on Friday when Archbishop Fisher revealed the church financially supports known abusers.

He said he could not pretend there was "remotely sufficient" supervision to ensure priests didn't offend again and that he often struggled with whether he should assist the abusers.

Counsel assisting, Gail Furness SC, said many diocesan priests wouldn't have any assets and would be dependant on the taxpayer without the church's help.

"On the other hand, others would say we don't like that you are continuing to support these guys in anyway," Archbishop Fisher said.

"It is a situation of we are damned if we do and damned if we don't."

Gabrielle Short, who walked out of the hearing during the archbishop's evidence, said the church was funding abusers while victims she knew lived in "rooming houses and caravans".

Another abuse survivor, Mark Fabbro, said there were "still in the mode of protecting the church at all costs".

"The priority seems to lie with putting the interests of the church before the interests of victims," he said.

The archbishops did not speak to media outside but Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart released a statement acknowledging "the bravery of the many survivors of child sexual abuse who have given evidence".

"I will do all within my power to ensure the abuse of the past never happens again," he said on behalf of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

"That the reforms my fellow bishops and religious leaders have endorsed ... will be implemented and that the Catholic Church in Australia will continue to support the survivors of clerical child sexual abuse."

The completion of the evidence from the archbishops of Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney marks the end of the royal commission's final hearing into the Catholic Church.