AUSTRALIA
Jakarta Globe
Sydney. The Church should not be made the scapegoat in an Australian inquiry into child sex abuse, the country’s most senior Catholic cleric said Tuesday as victims welcomed the pedophile probe.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard ended more than a decade of growing pressure by ordering a royal commission on Monday to investigate the responses of all religious organizations, schools and state care to allegations of abuse.
Sydney Archbishop George Pell said he welcomed the inquiry, which will also examine the responses of not-for-profit organizations and the police, as an opportunity to help victims, “clear the air” and “separate fact from fiction.”
“We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church,” he told a press conference.
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