AUSTRALIA
The Courier
By DANIEL FOGARTY AND GENEVIEVE GANNON May 21, 2013
Melbourne’s most senior Catholic has admitted child sexual abuse was covered up and the church was slow to act against pedophile priests.
Archbishop Denis Hart says a knighted former archbishop kept reports of sexual abuse to himself and that the church was keen to look after itself when addressing complaints, placing its reputation ahead of victims.
“The question of confidentiality of these matters was probably kept in one sense too much in that the church was too keen to look after herself and her good name and not keen enough to address the terrible anguish of the victims,” Archbishop Hart told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry yesterday.
He said Archbishop Sir Thomas Francis “Frank” Little had covered up abuse reports.
“Archbishop Little kept all these things to himself and there were no records,” Archbishop Hart said.
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