AUSTRALIA
eNCA
SYDNEY – The most senior Catholic in the Australian state of Victoria on Monday admitted the church had been too slow to act on paedophile priests, but insisted things had changed.
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart was speaking at a state government inquiry into the handling of child sex cases by religious and non-government bodies after hundreds of children were abused by clergy.
The Church has previously told the hearing that about 620 children had been abused since the 1930s.
“I would certainly say that the church has been slow to act,” Hart said, with the inquiry hearing that it took 18 years for paedophile priest Desmond Gannon to be defrocked.
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