DEVELOPMENT of a reform agenda to effectively deal with clerical sexual abuse has been called the most “significant” in the Church’s more than 200-year history in Australia.
Truth Justice and Healing Council chief executive officer Francis Sullivan said the reforms were now being fully developed and would be presented to Church leaders in the first half of 2014.
“These proposals recognise that we must do better when we are dealing with victims of sexual abuse as we work to make sure our institutions are as safe as possibly for children,” Mr Sullivan said.
The reform agenda also considers the effectiveness of the Church’s Towards Healing program for victims of sexual abuse by Church personnel.
Among reforms proposed are:
- appointing independent compensation commissioners to determine payments to victims who go through the victim response process known as Towards Healing
- the appointment of lay and independent experts to strengthen the Church’s National Committee of Professional Standards
- the introduction of an independent national board to develop and administer national child protection standards. The board would monitor adherence to these standards and publicly report on compliance
The reform proposals are outlined in the TJHC’s Towards Healing submission to the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
The Royal Commission has set aside two weeks in December “to interrogate” the Towards Healing process “which has worked well for some and hasn’t worked at all for others”, Mr Sullivan wrote in a recent TJHC blog.
The Towards Healing process, which started in 1996, grew out of recommendations to the Australian Catholic Bishop Conference’s National Committee for Professional Standards.
In the Towards Healing document, the Church made its first apology to all people who had suffered abuse by Church personnel.
Mr Sullivan said ultimately it might be appropriate for the Church to merge the reparation element of Towards Healing into a national compensation scheme to which all relevant institutions would contribute, should this be a recommendation of the Royal Commission.
