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Secret men's business

By Frank Walker
November 24 2002
The Sun-Herald

Australia's 40 Catholic bishops meet in Sydney behind closed doors this week as the Church faces a huge increase in sexual-abuse claims.
The Church is likely to end up paying tens of millions of dollars in compensation to the fresh claimants on top of a series of existing claims.
The number of people bringing sex-abuse claims against the Church jumped to more than 10 a week during the months that publicity surrounded allegations against Sydney's Archbishop George Pell.
Dr Pell was accused in June of molesting a 12-year-old boy in 1961 but denied the claim. An inquiry cleared him in October. But the public attention on the issue started a flood of abuse claims against the Church.
Sex-abuse lobby group Broken Rites said that, during the publicity surrounding Dr Pell's case, it had up to 300 calls a month from people claiming they had been abused by priests or members of religious orders.
National Committee for Professional Standards executive officer Sister Angela Ryan said the publicity had led to more people coming forward.
"At the height it would have been around 10 new cases a week," she said. "Not all related to child sexual abuse but they were all from times in the past when people said they were sexually molested or mistreated by priests or members of religious orders."
Sister Ryan administers Towards Healing, the Church's policy dealing with sex abuse by its employees.
She said the real increase in cases could be much higher as she did not necessarily hear of all allegations.
"I welcome the attention. I think it is very good that people are coming forward so that we can get it out in the open and deal with it rather than have it under cover," Sister Ryan told Australian Catholics magazine. "I think it is good that the media are interested."
Her view did not seem to be shared by bishops, who refused to talk publicly about the issue last week. Bishops were tight-lipped about the agenda for this week's conference, the venue for which they want to keep secret because of fear of demonstrations. The conference will be chaired by Canberra's Archbishop Francis Carroll, president of the bishops' conference.
Bishop Geoffrey Robinson told The Sun-Herald in June he would push for tougher action against sex offenders in the Church at the November meeting.
Bishop Robinson wanted all sections of the Church, including religious orders, to enforce more uniformity in how they dealt with offenders. He wanted the Church to expel offenders unless that would pose an even greater risk to the community.
Last week Bishop Robinson refused to comment, but sources said the push for tougher action against sex offenders in the Church seemed to have stalled.
Although Dr Pell was exonerated of the sex claims and recently met the Pope amid talks of his being elevated to cardinal, the hierarchy is still reeling from the impact of the Pell case and the new abuse claims it seems to have brought forward.
Canberra's Bishop Pat Power has said the Church should review its celibacy policy after the surge in sex-abuse claims against clergy in Australia and the US.
Melbourne's Archbishop Denis Hart spent tens of thousands of dollars in joint advertising with Archbishop Pell stating that the Church did not pay hush money to sex-abuse victims. The next day The Sun-Herald revealed that victims were still being forced to sign secrecy clauses to get compensation.