AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
Joanne McCarthy
4 Feb 2017
THE Catholic Church’s chances of recovering from the “trashing” of its standing as a moral leader are grim while the culture that allowed child sexual abuse remains, said a Sydney University professor of law on the eve of a final royal commission hearing into the church.
The child sexual abuse crisis was “never just because of a few bad apple” priests, said Professor Patrick Parkinson in a submission to a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing from Monday, that is expected to challenge the Vatican, canon law and Pope Francis about the church’s need to change.
“The problems that have brought the church to the very edge of disaster and beyond, trashing its reputation as a moral leader, were never just because of a few bad apples. The problems were institutional and cultural. The question must, regrettably be asked, to what extent they still are,” Professor Parkinson said.
The final Catholic hearing, expected to run for more than three weeks from Monday, will consider how systemic institutional factors, including structure, governance and culture, contributed to the occurrence of child sexual abuse within the church.
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.