AUSTRALIA
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An Australian bishop has testified that until 2000, the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy discouraged bishops from taking action against priests accused of sexual abuse.
Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide told a government commission that when bishops sought to discipline abusive priests, “the Congregation for the Clergy consistently made things difficult for them in trying to do that.” He said that the Vatican dicastery regularly supported accused priests who wanted to remain in active ministry.
Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who was prefect of the Congregation for Clergy from 1996 to 2006, acknowledged in a 2010 interview that he encouraged bishops to protect priests from prosecution for sexual abuse.
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