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Articles on Church abuse

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The Anglican Church has responded to the Royal Commission by allowing priests in some circumstances to report confessions of sexual abuse. AAP/Jeremy Piper

Anglican shift on confessions puts abuse victims’ interests first

The Australian Anglican Church has put the interests of children and victims of crime ahead of tradition and doctrine. Priests who hear confessions about serious criminal offences, including child abuse…
Our attitudes towards religious institutions - in particular the Catholic Church - has changed as scandal and controversy afflicts the former bastion of faith. AAP/Simon Mossman

What place for the Catholic Church in 21st century Australia?

As a young girl in the 1960s, I attended a Catholic boarding school. The nuns could be scary. When they walked the wintry and un-illuminated corridors of the convent, their knee-length rosary beads jangled…
The terms of reference announced by Julia Gillard could bring about cultural change around issues of institutional abuse. AAP/Stephanie Flack

Royal commission faces challenges but provides an opportunity for change

The terms of reference of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have been prudently drawn, providing scope for both inquisitorial depth and transformative policy recommendations…
Prime minister Julia Gillard met with victims and their families at Kirribilli House on Saturday. AAP/Tracey Nearmy

Royal commission has the power to bring justice to victims of sexual abuse

The terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, as announced by the prime minister on Friday, certainly seem to tick all the right boxes if survivors and…
Evidence shows sexual abuse is more likely to occur in particular kinds of institutional cultures, such as the Catholic Church. Roger Smith

Rogue priests or a culture of abuse? Investigating paedophilia in the Catholic Church

For victims and their advocates, the Prime Minister’s announcement of a Royal Commission into the role of institutions in the abuse of children represents a long-awaited shift in the way Australia approaches…

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