AUSTRALIA
Vanguard
Six Australian archbishops will be questioned by the country’s powerful royal commission as part of an investigation into widespread sexual abuse of children in Catholic churches and institutions, the commission announced on Friday.
The public hearing will begin in Sydney on Monday as part of the four-year-long inquiry into the handling of abuse cases, some as old as 70 years.
The hearing seeks to find out what churches are doing now to protect children. Six of Australia’s seven archbishops will appear in the three-week-long hearing.
One of them has already been charged with concealing information about child sexual abuse by a paedophile priest in 1971.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Bishops and leaders of other church orders, like Christian Brothers, Jesuits, as well as education officials and experts, will also give evidence at the hearing.
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