AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au
Shannon Deery
From: Sunday Herald Sun
June 02, 2013
EXCLUSIVE: ARCHBISHOP Denis Hart says he feels personally shamed and burdened over the Catholic Church’s handling of child sexual abuse.
The state’s most senior Catholic said in a frank interview his faith had been tested, but had not wavered, in the wake of shocking revelations of decades-long child abuse within the church.
He is now vowing to do whatever it takes to tackle the evil scourge.
The Archbishop said he was horrified to learn of the widespread extent of the clergy abuse crisis after becoming vicar general in 1996 when he realised his predecessors had systematically protected paedophiles.
In his most wide-ranging interview since giving evidence at the Victorian parliamentary inquiry – in which he conceded sexual attacks were covered up and the church’s reputation was put ahead of victims – Archbishop Hart said he:
TOOK responsibility for the church’s handling of abuse complaints
FELT betrayed and let down by members of the church who had abused children and by those who had covered up their “heinous crimes”
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