AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

September 16, 2012 11

Rachel Browne
Sun-Herald journalist

THE archdiocese of Sydney has produced 100,000 booklets stating the Catholic Church’s position on sexual abuse, which several victims said has added to their trauma.

The 16-page booklet, titled Sexual Abuse, has been distributed to parishes, Catholic agencies and schools.

About 38,000 booklets were given to children to take home from schools in the Sydney archdiocese.

The director of Catholic communications, Katrina Lee, said the booklet was overseen by the archdiocese’s Professional Standards Office and was released in response to claims made by the Greens NSW upper house MP David Shoebridge.

”There has been a lot of consistent misinformation about the issue, so we decided to pull all the information together in one booklet,” she said.