‘Broken people, broken leaders’: Catholics in spiritual crisis says Archbishop of Perth

Archbishop of Perth Timothy Costelloe says the Catholic church under a new pope will never be able to move on from the child abuse scandal and there is a sense of emptiness in the Vatican.

Archbishop of Perth, Timothy Costelloe, in Vatican City for the funeral of Pope Francis. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay.

One of the Australia Catholic Church’s most senior officials has said the Catholic community was suffering a “spiritual crisis” of “broken people with broken leaders” in regards to child sex abuse and required a rediscovery of what it was to be a decent human being.

The Archbishop of Perth, Timothy Costelloe told The Weekend Australian that the church’s work addressing sexual abuse also required ongoing vigilance under the next Pope.

Speaking inside Vatican City ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral, Archbishop Costelloe rejected a suggestion that a new Pope could start afresh after Francis’s regime spent a decade attempting to rid the church of child sex abuse perpetrators.

A five year inquiry in Australia in 2017 found tens of thousands of young children were sexually abused in schools, churches, and sports clubs mirroring experiences from across the globe, prompting Francis to implement laws of compulsory abuse reporting, holding bishops to account and removing secrecy provisions.

But Archbishop Costelloe said people must want to be part of the solution and not be a contributor to this “ongoing evil” and said the Church had to remain watchful.

“I don’t think we will be ever able to say we have dealt with that and we can move on, that would be a terrible mistake,’’ he said.

“We are a broken people with broken leaders. We have to just be vigilant all the time about this, and constantly doing everything we can.”

The view from above of the body of Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Picture: Getty Images.

He added: “There’s a spiritual crisis going on. Changing structures is important but there has to be a change of understanding, a rediscovery of what being a decent human being is all about and treating each person with respect and dignity.”

Archbishop Costelloe said he detected an emptiness in the atmosphere around the Vatican, despite the huge crowds queuing for hours to wend their way into St Peters Basilica to see Francis lying in state.

“There’s just a recognition that something really important is happening, something really significant for the church is coming to an end or has come to an end,’’ he said.

“There’s a sense of loss, a sense of emptiness in this part of Rome round the Vatican.’’

The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (Snap) has demanded the new Pope implement a zero tolerance law for anyone involved in abuse, as well as any church leaders who have covered up abuse crimes.

Archbishop Costelloe, who is also the president of the Australian Bishops Council, said the conclave would select a Pope that the Church requires at this point in history.

“We’re a religious organisation, we’re an organisation that believes that God is guarding us and leading us and taking us into the future that God has in mind for the church,’’ he said.

“So it’s really up to the Holy Spirit to decide who he wants as the next Pope, what the needs of the church are … we really don’t need to worry too much about this, because God has given us the Pope we needed at the time.”

Archbishop Costelloe, 71, met Pope Francis on several occasions, the most recent being eight months ago for a 25 minute private audience helping inform him about Australia’s plenary council, on which the Catholic Church’s synod program – a grassroots like structure- is based.

“He was very interested to hear about the plenary council that we’d had in Australia, because many of the things that we tried in the plenary council, were very similar to the procedures that were eventually adopted at the synod”, the Archbishop said.

Archbishop Costelloe said Australia’s pioneering efforts to be more embracing and egalitarian was acknowledged when Francis appointed a disproportionate number of Australians to the synod.

“I think there was a certain significance to the number of Australians who were eventually appointed in one capacity or another to the synod,’’ he said.

“It was quite significant compared to the size of the Catholic Church in Australia. I think we had as many people involved from Australia as there were from the United States, for example.”

Archbishop Costelloe said while the Synod will be one of Francis’ most enduring parts of his legacy other significant impacts have been his pastoral dimension in the modelling and governing of the church and a discovery of a different style of leadership.

“His was a gospel-focused style of leadership, according to the model of Jesus. He’s made it the centre of his style.’’ Archbishop Costelloe said.

Francis also shifted the tradition of selecting cardinals from particular dioceses, and instead looking to the peripheries of the church. In that respect he bypassed the Archbishops of Sydney or Melbourne and selected Mykola Bychok, a bishop with the Ukrainian church in Melbourne, to be a cardinal late last year.

“He tried to put into practice what he often spoke about, about bringing the margins of the church into the centre,’’ said the Archbishop.

Despite the huge crowds that have descended upon the Vatican City in recent days, many queuing for hours to wend their way into St Peters Basilica to see Francis lying in state, Archbishop Costelloe said he detected an emptiness in the atmosphere.

“There’s just a recognition that something really important is happening, something really significant for the church is coming to an end or has come to an end,’’ he said.

“There’s a sense of loss, a sense of emptiness in this part of Rome round the Vatican.’’