AUSTRALIA
The New Daily
Australia’s metropolitan Catholic archbishops agree a “catastrophic failure” of leadership contributed to ongoing child sexual abuse by clergy across the country.
The archbishops of Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide are jointly giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual abuse in Sydney.
Counsel assisting Gail Furness SC on Thursday asked each of them whether they agreed leadership failures were responsible for ongoing abuse in the church.
“I think you might want to use stronger words (than failure), in some cases,” Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher said.
“It was a kind of criminal negligence to deal with some of the problems that were staring us in the face.”
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