AUSTRALIA
The Age
November 20, 2013
Barney Zwartz
Ordinary Catholics have to take responsibility for the church as it emerges from the abuse crisis and tries to rebuild trust, says church spokesman Francis Sullivan.
In a speech on Wednesday evening in Ballarat – deliberately chosen as one of the regional centres most scarred by clergy sexual abuse – Mr Sullivan said the church was at a critical juncture and warned that revelations soon to emerge at the royal commission would dishearten and disillusion Catholics around the country.
“Community disgust and outrage will again be unleashed,” he said.
The royal commission next month begins a public session examining the Catholic response Towards Healing, and how the church dealt with four separate victims.
The Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled clergy child sexual abuse was scathing about the church in its report last week, and the church has since endorsed the report’s wide-ranging recommendations for legal and other reforms.
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