AUSTRALIA
The Age
September 21, 2012
Barney Zwartz
The Catholic Church in Victoria today admitted that it had upheld 620 cases of criminal child abuse by clergy in the past 16 years.
Most of the cases were before 1990, some dating back to the 1930s, the church said in a statement about its submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by churches and non-government organisations.
As the church has earlier said it had upheld some 330 cases via the Melbourne Response protocol it launched in 1996, this suggests that the other Victorian dioceses of Ballarat, Sale and Sandhurst (Bendigo) have upheld nearly 300 complaints. This figure has not been released before.
Submissions to the inquiry close today, and public hearings are expected to begin early next month.
The four Victorian dioceses have combined to make one submission, titled Facing the Truth, signed by Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, Ballarat Bishop Peter Connors, Sale Bishop Christopher Prowse and Sandhurst Bishop Les Tomlinson, plus the state and national heads of Catholic Religious Orders, Sister Helen Toohey and Sister Annette Cunliffe respectively.
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