AUSTRALIA
Big Pond News
Saturday, January 05, 2013
The head of a Catholic Church council set up to work with the royal commission into child abuse says the church wants to work transparently with authorities so ‘the truth can come out’.
But Francis Sullivan, the chief executive of the new Truth, Justice and Healing Council, says the seal of confession remains ‘intimate’ for the church and its followers, and should be maintained.
The new council, announced in December, will be headed by former NSW Supreme Court chief judge Barry O’Keefe and Mr Sullivan, the former secretary-general of the Australian Medical Association.
Two bishops and a nun have already been nominated to the 10-person council but it will be led by lay people, whose brief is to nationally co-ordinate the church’s ’embrace’ of the royal commission.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.