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Catholic Church Rejects Key Recommendation of Australian Child Abuse Inquiry

by Phil Mercer

   SYDNEY --

   A senior member of Australia's Roman Catholic Church has rejected a key
   recommendation of a five-year inquiry into child sex abuse. The Royal
   Commission has made more than 400 recommendations, including the
   creation of a new National Office for Child Safety and the requirement
   that members of the clergy report abuse confided in them during
   confession.

   The report found that tens of thousands of children were abused in
   Australian institutions over past decades. Most of the perpetrators
   were members of the clergy and school teachers.

   For years, the vulnerable were preyed upon by pedophiles, while
   invariably those in charge looked the other way and did nothing.

   The government has yet to formally respond to the commission's report,
   but Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the scale of abuse
   was a "national tragedy."

   "I want to thank and honor the courage of the survivors and their
   families who have told, often for the first time, the dreadful stories
   of abuse that they received from people who actually owed them love and
   protection," Turnbull said.

   For five years the Royal Commission heard agonizing stories of rape and
   sexual assault. Some of the tortured children would later kill
   themselves, while others would endure the trauma for the rest of their
   lives.

   Leonie Sheedy was abused in care, and says those who suffered deserve
   compensation.

   "Children like me who were raised in Australia's orphanages, children's
   homes and foster care - we certainly were not safe from the predators
   and the sadists of this nation, and we deserve redress for all forms of
   abuse and neglect," Sheedy said.

   The head of the Anglican Church of Australia has said had expressed
   regret over its "shameful" handling of many abuse allegations. But the
   Catholic Church has rejected a key recommendation of the Royal
   Commission that priests should report abuse confided to them, even in
   the secret context of the confessional. Archbishop of Melbourne Denis
   Hart, said any priest who broke the seal of confession would be
   excommunicated, and be expelled from the Church and denied a Catholic
   funeral.

   More than 2,500 cases of mistreatment have been referred to the
   authorities, and 230 criminal prosecutions have been initiated.