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Keywords: Sexual Abuse

  • RELIGION

    Can the national redress scheme deliver justice?

    • Craig Hughes-Cashmore
    • 05 April 2018
    10 Comments

    Redress is not compensation. It is about acknowledging the harm caused and supporting people who have experienced child sexual abuse in an institution to move forward positively in the way that is best for them.

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  • RELIGION

    Let’s be less shrill about Church-State relations

    • Frank Brennan
    • 03 April 2018
    48 Comments

    Archbishop Fisher's Easter warning was in part responding to the findings of the royal commission and in part to some of the submissions to the Ruddock panel on religious freedom. Being on the panel, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on particular submissions at this time. But I was shocked by the Archbishop's shrill tone.

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  • RELIGION

    Mud-wrestling the Catholic elephant

    • John Warhurst
    • 01 April 2018
    26 Comments

    The size and complexity of the church has bedevilled the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Church reformers face the same dilemma. The church is big and slippery, with numerous opportunities to engage but equally numerous veto points and dead-ends when it comes to getting action.

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  • RELIGION

    Why clericalism matters

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 28 February 2018
    81 Comments

    In the Catholic Church clericalism is the whipping boy of choice. But what it embraces is less clear. It is a pejorative word, used by people of others but never of themselves, and is normally defined by reference to examples of it. It is worth pausing to reflect on clericalism and its significance for church and society.

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  • RELIGION

    A new high water mark for child protection

    • Sheree Limbrick
    • 20 February 2018
    34 Comments

    When the bishops and religious decided to establish CPSL they understood that a new approach was needed. In a Church that will take many years to recover from the child sexual abuse crisis, something different had to happen. The safety and protection of children and vulnerable people in the Church is everybody's business.

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  • RELIGION

    Rebuilding trust must be the priority

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 24 January 2018
    37 Comments

    It's a common refrain from survivors of clerical sexual abuse, often heard when church leaders try to explain away their failure to listen and respond to the crimes of their peers: 'They just don't get it.' Up until recently, Pope Francis has seemed to 'get it' in his response to the crisis of abuse. But recent events have raised doubts.

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  • PODCAST

    Francis Sullivan on the Royal Commission aftermath

    • Podcast
    • 24 January 2018
    3 Comments

    The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has concluded. What lies ahead now for the Catholic Church? Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, talks about what the process has been like, and the unease among ordinary Catholics that church leaders still don't get it.

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  • RELIGION

    Francis Sullivan: Reform and renewal after Royal Commission

    • Fatima Measham
    • 24 January 2018
    19 Comments

    Fatima Measham speaks with Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, to reflect on the journey since the Royal Commission was first announced in November 2012 and to consider what are the next steps for the Church.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Airing abuse allegations serves public interest

    • Kate Galloway
    • 16 January 2018
    15 Comments

    Many claim it is inappropriate for media to report these stories. The concept of justice at law depends upon systems designed to weigh evidence, affording the parties the opportunity to tell their stories. But what if these systems are inadequate to expose the abuses of power evident in the recent disclosures?

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  • RELIGION

    Best of 2017: Bishop Long at the Royal Commission

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 08 January 2018
    7 Comments

    Vincent Long's testimony was notable for its directness, honesty and the awareness it displayed of the importance of church culture. Long grew up in the Vietnamese Catholic Church and was afterwards chosen to lead the Australian Church. In his responses he focused on clericalism and its role in giving license and cover to clerical abuse.

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  • RELIGION

    Best of 2017: Commission's Catholic wrap-up

    • Frank Brennan
    • 08 January 2018
    13 Comments

    The statistics were horrifying. Every case represented a person who claims as a child to have been abused by a person of authority in a Catholic institution. Whichever way the statistics are interpreted in comparison with other institutions, they are appalling. We need to hold the victims clearly in focus.

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  • RELIGION

    Best of 2017: The abuse commission 'damp squib'

    • Moira Rayner
    • 08 January 2018
    2 Comments

    This royal commission has changed the public response of religious institutions, not their culture. Nor has it altered the culture at the political pointy ends of state, territory or national government. The cause of the misuse of power over children was our refusal to take a child's world view as seriously as our own adult priorities.

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