AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times
[with copy of the letter to Pope Francis]
Katie Burgess
Canberra Times reporter
Child sexual abuse campaigner Damian De Marco has urged Pope Francis to release cardinals from an oath that may restrict them from speaking out about child sexual abuse.
In an open letter to the pontiff, the 2015 ACT Local Hero and Bravehearts ambassador said the oath all new cardinals must swear, which prohibits them from disclosing information which could damage the Roman Catholic Church, is “inappropriate” due to the church’s history of concealing child sexual abuse.
“In Australia, the Catholic Church now has 749,000 children in its care and each of those children are entrusted to a cardinal who will promise to conceal any information that could harm the church,” Mr De Marco said.
“They really should be standing up and saying ‘I promise I will protect these children’ rather than saying we ‘will protect the church’.”
Mr De Marco said despite ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1984, church officials have regularly imposed a “code of silence” on cases of child sexual abuse and placed the reputation of the institution ahead of the protection of children.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.