Australian Catholic leaders yesterday vowed that the church’s “shameful” history of child abuse and cover-ups would never be repeated, but rejected a national inquiry’s call to report such assaults disclosed in confession.
The Catholic Church was formally responding to a five-year royal commission into institutional child abuse, ordered by the government after a decade of pressure to investigate widespread allegations across the country.
“Many bishops failed to listen, failed to believe and failed to act,” Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge said, vowing that there would be no more “cover-ups.”
“Those failures allowed some abusers to offend again and again, with tragic and sometimes fatal consequences. The bishops and leaders of religious orders pledge today: Never again,” he said.
The commission was contacted by more than 15,000 survivors who detailed claims of abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools, often dating back decades.
Among the inquiry’s recommendations was that priests break the traditional confidentiality of confession if they are told of abuse, but the church said such a requirement impinged on religions liberties.
“The only recommendation we can’t accept relates to removing the seal of confession,” Coleridge said.
“This isn’t because we regard ourselves as being above the law or because we don’t think the safety of children is supremely important — we do,” he said. “But we don’t accept that safeguarding and the seal as mutually exclusive. Nor do we believe that abolishing the seal will make children any safer.”
The national inquiry, which heard horrific stories during often confrontational and emotionally exhausting public and private hearings, delivered its final report in December last year.
It found that Australian institutions “seriously failed” children in their care, with tens of thousands sexually assaulted.
Catholic Religious Australia president Sister Monica Cavanagh said the church accepted 98 percent of the recommendations, calling the inquiry “an important and necessary period for the Australian community.”
“The process is already under way to reform the church’s practices to ensure that safeguarding is integral in all that we do as part of our ministry and outreach in the community,” she said. “Making the church a safer place for our children and vulnerable persons is at the heart of our commitment to mission.”
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
RSS