AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN DECEMBER 12, 2013
THE Catholic Church’s response to allegations of child abuse by priests has “been done on the run”, is inconsistent in its treatment of victims and is undermined by appallingly inaccurate record keeping, says the Archbishop of Brisbane.
Giving evidence yesterday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Mark Coleridge called for an independent, national scheme to replace the church’s authority to decide what financial compensation victims should receive.
The responsibility of the Catholic Church to decide these payouts was “a fatal confusion” within the current Towards Healing process, established to respond to the victims of child sexual abuse by priests, he said.
“In one sense, Towards Healing was something done very carefully, but in another sense it’s a process that’s been done on the run and by people who were learning as they went,” Archbishop Coleridge said.
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