AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
November 24, 2015
Jane Lee
Legal affairs, health and science reporter
The Catholic Church has not ruled out blocking compensation claims for child sexual abuse if it occurred before certain time limits.
The church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council released a set of guidelines for the way it deals with survivors’ civil claims ahead of a royal commission hearing on the Melbourne Archdiocese’s handling of historic abuse on Tuesday.
The guidelines – which church lawyers helped draft – reveal for the first time how it intends to deal with legal defences which survivors consider to be the biggest barriers to obtaining compensation from the church.
Most states and territories have laws that allow the church to block civil claims for child abuse in court if they were made beyond certain time limits. Victoria last year abolished statutes of limitation for child abuse, largely because survivors typically take decades to disclose their abuse.
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