AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey

On Monday, survivors of child sexual abuse, their supporters, lawyers, solicitors and representatives of the Catholic church will descend on the bucolic Australian town of Ballarat for the second time in nine months.

The royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse, tasked by the federal government in 2013 to take on the massive job of independently investigating child sexual abuse within churches and other institutions throughout Australia, will once again turn its attention to the Diocese of Ballarat.

Two previous rounds of Ballarat-focussed hearings, one held in the town itself and one in Melbourne, heard evidence from survivors of abuse within the diocese, as well as bishops and priests who were witness to, or responsible for, abusing. This time, the commissioners will question senior religious and educational figures within the diocese.

The hearing will culminate on 29 February when Australia’s…