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Australian govt orders child sex abuse inquiry

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Aus govt orders child sex abuse inquiry

3News NZ

Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell says the church will cooperate with the inquiry (Reuters file)

Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell says the church will cooperate with the inquiry (Reuters file)

By Kristen Gelineau

Australia's prime minister has ordered a federal inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse in state and religious institutions and community groups following a string of sexual abuse accusations against priests and claims of a Catholic church cover-up.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard had faced mounting pressure to order a wide-ranging investigation after the New South Wales state premier last week ordered an inquiry into allegations of a sexual abuse cover-up by Catholic priests in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney. Victorian officials are also investigating a separate series of priest sex abuse allegations in their state.

"Any instance of child abuse is a vile and evil thing. Australians know that," Gillard told reporters in Canberra. "Australians know, from the revelations that they've read in recent weeks, that too many children have suffered child abuse but have also seen other adults let them down. They've not only had their trust betrayed by the abuser, but other adults who could have acted to assist them have failed to do so."

The investigation will target religious and state institutions, schools and community groups such as sporting clubs. It will also look into police responses to abuse allegations and is expected to take several years to complete.

Last week, New South Wales ordered a state inquiry after a veteran police detective wrote an open letter to the premier accusing the Catholic church of thwarting his attempts to investigate child sex abuse allegations in the Hunter Valley.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who spent years investigating abuse allegations in the Hunter region, said the church destroyed evidence, silenced victims and shuffled around accused priests in a bid to cover up abuse. There have been hundreds of allegations of abuse by priests in the region since the mid-1990s.

Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell, Australia's highest-ranking Catholic official, has previously said he thought a federal inquiry would be a "disproportionate" attack on the church. But in a statement Monday, he said the church would cooperate with the inquiry, adding he hoped the investigation would unveil the truth.

"Public opinion remains unconvinced that the Catholic church has dealt adequately with sexual abuse," he said in a statement. "Ongoing and at times one-sided media coverage has deepened this uncertainty. This is one of the reasons for my support for this royal commission. I welcome the prime minister's announcement. I believe the air should be cleared and the truth uncovered."

Victoria officials are separately investigating how churches and other religious institutions in their state have responded to sexual abuse allegations against clergy.

Gillard said further details of the inquiry, such as who will lead it, will be announced in the next few weeks.

AP

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Comments

19/11/2012 7:34:31 p.m.

David McCann wrote:

If the causitive issues of sexual abuse are to be addressed then both church and state need acknowledge sex abuse is power abuse expressed sexually and the precoursers of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church cannot be addressed by a state organisation. Sexual abuse effects the victim at the level of the physical and sychological. The catholic church operates its abuse at the level of its Spirituality and that is why Pell will always win. At that level he considers himself totaly self policing. Ireland's parliamentarians are religious men. They sent the church's political ambassador back to Rome and told him to only return when he modified the Church's spiritual practices. One example: The peak of Catholic belief is the ability to recieve God Sacramentaly as transubstanciated bread and wine. What the mind set of a Catholic adault "going to Communion" is - is a matter between them and God. What an eight year old child must do in order to recieve Communion for the first time is be groomed into believing in sin, know they are sinners, and go to a "private place" with a priest to "confess" before being able to recieve Communion fcorf the first time. Parents and treac hers are "groomed" into this belief as well. The child is controled by adaults. There is no choice but a compliance - scaring the child with guilt for life. To obtain "forgiveness" for such sin "penance" is given by the priest - a celibate male forbidden any physical expression of sexuality. This is what Pell's Religion offers as best practice. It is not behoven on Aussie citazens to just say "I don't believe in God - it dosen't effect me or my kids. Pell's legal system is Rome centred and militaristic by genre. Aussie kids abused in such a way at a Spiritual level are mere colatoral damage for what Pell considers a "higher cause." Stop iit if you can. The Irish did.

14/11/2012 8:55:38 a.m.

Calvin wrote:

@ Ruz, This inquiry will be a waste of time, they have covered this up for so long that the truth will never come out. The world knows what has been happening and hopefully the truth comes out but we all know that anything incriminating will be long gone and they will just deny deny deny. The catholic church is a disgrace

14/11/2012 8:50:13 a.m.

Ian wrote:

@ Ruz, you are dead right, you would expect that NZ would follow australia and demand answers but as long as we have catholics at the forefront of parliment there wont be. The catholic church has covered this up for so many years that the full extent of the abuse will never be known but it is time the own up and admit what has been happening so that people can see the cult for what it truely is

14/11/2012 6:20:28 a.m.

Ruz wrote:

Cardinal Pell has a lot to hide so it's no wonder that he considers the proposed Aussie inquiry to be a disproportinate attack on the church. The Catholic Church has been implicated in many incidents of child sex abuse in Ireland, canada, Great Britian, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. The cover-ups go right up to the Vatican and it's quite possible that the current Pope was involved. John Key says that there will be no inquiry in New Zealand which could be because Bill English is a catholic.