AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
June 12, 2014
Richard Ackland
Sydney Morning Herald columnist
How is it that the Catholic Church has not only harboured so many paedophile priests but strenuously covered up their criminal activities?
This conspiracy exists not only in Australia but in other countries where the Catholic Church functions. We’ve seen the same pattern in Ireland, Britain and the US. It is a cover-up on a global scale.
With the work of the royal commission into child sexual abuse and the Newcastle Maitland special commission we’ve been hearing, almost on a daily basis, of senior priests protecting the worst sort of offenders, failing to report them to the civil authorities, moving them around when things got hot, and generally being part of what can only be described as a large-scale criminal protection racket.
In his evidence to the special commission in Newcastle, Father Brian Lucas said that the obligation to report a serious crime depended on the wishes of the victim. The other rabbit hole of escape was that the secrecy of the confessional overcomes obligations to the criminal law.
This week the Marist Brothers in Canberra have been the focus of the McClellan royal commission, and the story is the same – protection of clergy against whom allegations of paedophilia have been made and giving victims the most incredible run-around.
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