AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
June 13, 2018
By Joanne McCarthy
Everything changed on December 15, 2017 when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse presented its final report and recommendations to the Australian public.
It’s a shame Australia’s Catholic bishops missed the memo.
The royal commission exposed in sickening, staggering detail the church’s crimes against thousands of children in Australia alone, and its culpability as an organisation that protected criminals and facilitated those crimes.
But the bishops, in response, are acting as if nothing has happened. Sure, they’ve promised change. They’ve released pious statements. They’ve even used the words “humility” and “humbled” in the right context.
But with every move they make, with every step they don’t take, Australia’s bishops show they don’t understand that their relationship with Australians has changed. Has had to change.
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