AUSTRALIA
The Courier
BY TOM MCILROY
05 Apr, 2012
BALLARAT’S Catholic parishioners attending Easter mass will not receive a controversial letter calling for an independent inquiry into clergy sexual abuse in Victoria.
Bishop Peter Connors said yesterday he had not received the letter from a group calling itself Commission of Inquiry Now, or COIN, and priests in the Diocese of Ballarat would not discuss the issue during homilies at masses this weekend.
COIN chairman Bryan Keon-Cohen QC and victims of sexual abuse by clergy wrote to parish priests in Melbourne and Ballarat this week, asking them to read the letter during Holy Week masses.
The group is calling for a state-established independent inquiry into the handling of abuse, and adopted the tactics of church leaders who sent more than 80,000 letters expressing opposition to same-sex marriage from Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart to parishioners last week.
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