AUSTRALIA
The Standard
December 6, 2017
By Monique Patterson
A “catastrophic institutional failure” by the Catholic Church to take action on cases of sexual abuse led to more south-west children being abused, a royal commission has found.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Assault released a scathing report on Wednesday, which condemned the church’s Ballarat diocese leaders, who were responsible for parishes across the region.
“That harm could have been avoided if the church had acted in the interests of children rather than in its own interests,” the report said.
“It was only when there was a possibility that the sexual abuse of children by a priest would become widely known that any action was taken.
“Invariably, that action was to remove the priest from the community for a short period and then place him in another, more distant parish.
“Restrictions were not placed on priests and supervision was not given.”
The report said “commissioners heard that there was a tendency by clergy in the Diocese to treat complaints or allegations of child sexual abuse dismissively and in favour of the priest who was the subject of the allegation”.
The commission heard about abuse at a number of locations, including Mortlake and Warrnambool.
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