AUSTRALIA
The Age
May 20, 2013
Henrietta Cook
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart says the Catholic church has been slow to act on child abuse and admits there has been a culture of “secrecy and cover-up”.
Archbishop Hart told a packed gallery at the parliamentary inquiry into child abuse by churches that taking 18 years to act on ejecting a convicted paedophile priest was “better late than never”.
He said paedophile priests had been moved on to innocent parishes but practices had improved since 1996.
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart fronts the parliamentary inquiry into child abuse by churches.
“I believe that is an awful blight on the church.”
He said the church was “too slow to realise what was going on” because they were dealing with cunning and devious criminals.
He told a packed gallery at the parliamentary committee that he was expressing his “anguish and pain”.
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