AUSTRALIA
Echo Netdaily
Sydney [AAP]
The Catholic Church plans to make it a requirement for dioceses or religious orders to help sex abuse claimants identify who they should sue if they want take legal action.
The requirement is contained in guidelines published on Monday by the Truth, Justice and Healing Council and have been endorsed by the Church leadership.
They will come into effect from January 1.
The council says they are designed to promote ‘justice and consistency’ in the way the church handles child sexual abuse claims and conducts litigation when taken to court.
A recurring problem identified by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had been the difficulty experienced by child abuse survivors in identifying a correct defendant when it came to legal proceedings.
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.