Parolin arrived to hear a devastating assessment of the effect that abuse has had on the credibility of the Catholic Church in Australia, where a royal commission is wrapping up a years-long investigation that found some 7 percent of priests had been accused of molesting some 4,444 children between 1980 and 2015.
"Sure, it may happen in other institutions. Sure it happens in families. But the fact that it happened in the Catholic Church says something about the corruption of the Catholic Church," said Francis Sullivan, head of the Australian bishops' council that is coordinating the church's response to the royal commission inquiry. "We have to come to terms with that cancer."
Often critics of the Church are accused of being bigots for pointing out the fact that it prefers to protect its pedophiles instead of turning them over to the proper authorities. For too long the Vatican has kept its records secret and has refused to turn them over to the U.N.
Vatican refuses to give UN panel full details of clerical sex abuse cases
The Vatican has refused to give a United Nations panel information it requested on clerical sex abuse, in a move that it said was part of its confidentiality policy but which was criticised as "a slap in the face" for victims.
In a series of questions asked in the runup to a public hearing scheduled for January, the UN committee on the rights of the child had requested the Holy See provide details of abuse cases and specific information concerning their subsequent investigation and handling.
But, in its response, the Holy See said that although it had answered the questions in a general way, it was not its practice to disclose information on specific cases unless requested to do so by another country as part of legal proceedings.
In the 24-page document, the Holy See said it had been "deeply saddened by the scourge of sexual abuse" and regretted the involvement of some members of the Catholic clergy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/vatican-refuses-un-panel-details-clerical-sex-abuse-cases
The Holy See is 'deeply saddened' and regrets the involvement of its clergy - just not enough to do the right thing so the abusers can be brought to justice and the full extent of the cover-up can be exposed.
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