AUSTRALIA
Naitonal Catholic Reporter
Catholic News Service | Dec. 15, 2014
SYDNEY
Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney said there is no link between celibacy and child sexual abuse after the body charged with responding to a national inquiry on behalf of Australia’s bishops appeared to link the two.
The Truth Justice and Healing Council made the apparent link in its activity report, released Friday, detailing its actions in response to the Australian government’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which began Jan. 13, 2013.
In an opinion piece for The Australian newspaper Monday, Fisher wrote that while abuse in the church was “sickening” and “shameful,” the great majority of cases occurred in non-institutional settings, particularly in the family.
“We must avoid glib explanations or simplistic solutions,” Fisher wrote in the piece. “As I have said before, there must be no more excuses, no more cover-ups.
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