By Jacqueline Williams, December 15, 2017<\/p>\n
SYDNEY, Australia \u2014 A royal commission investigating the sexual abuse of children in Australia found Friday that the nation was gripped by an epidemic dating back decades, with tens of thousands of children sexually abused in schools, religious organizations and other institutions.<\/p>\n
The commission, the highest form of investigation in Australia, urged government action on its 189 recommendations, including the establishment of a new National Office for Child Safety and penalties for those who suspect abuse and fail to alert the police, including priests who hear about abuse in confessionals. It also urged Australia\u2019s Roman Catholic leadership to press Rome to end mandatory celibacy for priests.<\/p>\n
\u201cTens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in many Australian institutions,\u201d said the report<\/a>, which was particularly critical of Catholic organizations. \u201cWe will never know the true number. Whatever the number, it is a national tragedy, perpetrated over generations within many of our most trusted institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said all Australians should read the report.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to thank and honor the courage of the survivors and their families who\u2019ve told, often for the first time, the dreadful stories of abuse that they received from people who actually owed them love and protection,\u201d Mr. Turnbull said.<\/p>\n The commission\u2019s chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said that the panel heard from more than 1,000 witnesses over nearly 15 months in assessing the magnitude of the abuse.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not a case of a few rotten apples,\u201d the report said. \u201cSociety\u2019s major institutions have seriously failed. In many cases those failings have been exacerbated by a manifestly inadequate response to the abused person. The problems have been so widespread, and the nature of the abuse so heinous, that it is difficult to comprehend.\u201d<\/p>\n Australia created the commission in 2012 to investigate decades of sexual abuse in religious institutions, schools and other establishments \u2014 the only country in the world so far to initiate such a sweeping government-led inquiry. More than 4,000 institutions have been implicated in abuse allegations, the commission found.<\/p>\n Australian government investigators identified<\/a> 4,444 victims of abuse and at least 1,880 suspected abusers from 1980 to 2015. Most of those suspected of abuse were Catholic priests and religious brothers. The report released Friday said 62 percent of the survivors who told the commission they were abused in religious institutions were abused in a Catholic facility.<\/p>\n Responding to the findings, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne offered \u201cour unconditional apology for this suffering and a commitment to ensuring justice for those affected.\u201d<\/p>\n He said many of the panel\u2019s recommendations would have a significant impact on the way the Catholic Church operates in Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cCentral to this Royal Commission is the painful truth that so many children were abused, trust was destroyed and innocence lost,\u201d the archbishop said. \u201cThey are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters \u2014 this should never have happened. As a bishop I express my deepest sorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n The inquiry, which cost the Australian government 373 million Australian dollars, or $286 million, was unmatched in its scope in examining a scandal that has shaken the Roman Catholic hierarchy worldwide.<\/p>\n \u201cOur inquiry revealed numerous cases where leaders of religious institutions knew about allegations of child sexual abuse but failed to take effective action, often with catastrophic consequences for children,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n The most damaging revelations about child sexual abuse have centered on scandals in towns like Ballarat, the hometown of Cardinal George Pell, who this year became the highest-ranking Roman Catholic prelate to be formally charged with sexual offenses<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Ballarat, a police officer investigated a pedophile ring at local Catholic schools and said up to 30 victims had since committed suicide.<\/p>\n