Australia's Catholic church tallies up six decades of child abuse allegations

Reuters

Published Feb 06, 2017 08:13AM ET

Australia's Catholic church tallies up six decades of child abuse allegations

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Seven percent of Catholic priests working in Australia between 1950 and 2010 were accused of child sex crimes, but few were pursued, data from Australian church authorities showed on Monday, as hearings began over allegations dating back decades.

Last year, Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell said the church had made "enormous mistakes" and "catastrophic" choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish and over-relying on counseling of priests to solve the problem.

Monday's data, seen as the most substantial to detail the extent of child sex abuse in the church, were compiled with the cooperation of the church as part of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Francis Sullivan, chief executive of the church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council, said 1,265 Catholic priests and religious brothers had been accused between 1950 and 2010.

"These numbers are shocking. They are tragic and they are indefensible," Sullivan told the commission in Sydney. "As Catholics we hang our heads in shame."

Sullivan held back tears as he described the "massive failure on the part of the Catholic Church in Australia to protect children from abusers".

Commission research showed 4,444 people had made allegations of abuse to 93 Catholic authorities between 1980 and 2015.

The worst-offending institutions were the orders of brothers who often run schools and homes for the most vulnerable children, with girl victims aged 10.5 on average, while boys were 11.6 years old, the commission's research showed.

The church surveyed 10 religious institutions and 75 church authorities to uncover the abuse data on priests, non-ordained brothers and sisters, and other church personnel employed between 1950 and 2009.

Prosecutions have been launched in 27 of the 309 abuse cases the commission has referred to Australian police, with 75 more being investigated, it says.

The hearing is due to run for three weeks.

Two members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors set up by Pope Francis were invited to give evidence via video link but instead opted to provide written evidence on the group's work, the commission was told.

Church sexual abuse broke into the open in 2002, when it was discovered that U.S. bishops in the Boston area moved abusers from parish to parish instead of defrocking them.