Australian Catholic leaders vowed Friday that the church’s “shameful” history of child abuse and cover-ups will never be repeated, but rejected a national inquiry’s call to report such assaults disclosed in confession.
The 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.
“The bishops and leaders of religious orders pledge today: Never again,” said Catholic Bishop Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge. The commission was contacted by more than 15,000 survivors who detailed harrowing 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 religious liberties and was “non-negotiable”.
