AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
[with video]
by JOANNE McCARTHY May 30, 2014
THERE are four volumes in the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry report released by Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, SC, yesterday.
But within those hundreds of pages is a single key line that validates, vindicates and justifies the efforts of so many.
There is ‘‘sufficient evidence warranting the prosecution of a senior Catholic Church official in connection with the concealment of child sexual abuse’’ relating to the late Hunter priest Jim Fletcher, the report found. And this is significant for so many reasons.
It is significant in world terms.
Although many Catholic priests in Australia and across the globe have been successfully prosecuted and jailed for sexually abusing children, the number of church men prosecuted for concealing those crimes or failing to report them can be counted on one hand.
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