Australian Royal Commission Archives

New admission by diocese could cost Australian Church millions in claims
- Catholic News Service, Church in Oceania
- Sep 13, 2019
The Australian Catholic Church could face tens of millions of dollars in compensation claims after the Diocese of Ballarat in Victoria state admitted, for the first time, it knew of the behavior of a pedophile priest yet continued to move him around from parish to parish.
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Australian prelate says mandatory reporting, seal of confession not ‘mutually exclusive’
- Church in Oceania
- Aug 16, 2019
Mandatory reporting of child sex abuse by religious ministers is a welcome reform, according to Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne, but the seal of confession can’t be broken for any reason.
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Australian Catholic Church releases standards for child protection
- Catholic News Service, Church in Oceania
- Jun 3, 2019
The Australian Catholic Church has released its National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, more than 18 months after they were recommended by the country’s landmark Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, in the latest chapter in the overhaul of how the Church responds to clergy sexual abuse.
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Melbourne Archdiocese sees increasing costs in payouts to abuse survivors

The Melbourne Archdiocese compensation plan, devised by Cardinal George Pell in 1996 to pay people who had been sexually abused by clergy, was designed to limit financial damage to the Church by having survivors sign away their rights to sue the Church.

Australian Church to review governance after sex abuse inquiry

The Australian Catholic Church is continuing on its groundbreaking path toward a potential dramatic overhaul with the announcement that a panel of experts will thoroughly review the governance and management structures of Catholic dioceses and parishes.