AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline
[with video]
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 08/08/2013
Reporter: Steve Cannane
The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse is taking submissions into the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing protocols which were introduced in 1996 to deal with abuse committed by clergy.
Transcript
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse is taking submissions into the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing protocols, introduced in 1996 to deal with abuse committed by clergy.
The protocols are meant to be driven by pastoral concerns dealing with the pain of victims through a Christian response.
But tonight for the first time a consultant to the committee has spoken out, saying the Church’s insurance company had too much influence on the response and that a senior official from the company boasted of destroying Church personnel records.
Recently at the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse, the CEO of Catholic Church insurance, Peter Rush, said CCI officers remained independent of the underlying process.
Steve Cannane has this exclusive report, produced by Sashka Koloff.
STEVE CANNANE, REPORTER: Catholic Church insurance was set up in 1911 to insure Church properties against fire.
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