Catholic Church to act against priests who don’t meet the mark

Catholic priests could face serious penalties if they don’t meet the mark set by a new professional standards body.

Catholic priests could face serious penalties if they don’t meet the mark set by a new professional standards body that will publicly name non-compliant dioceses and orders.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday heard Catholic Professional Standards Limited would audit church authorities, with a view to holding them to account by publishing ­reports online.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge thinks that bishops should consider entering formal ­arrange­­ments with priests so they could be stood aside or have their faculties removed if they repeatedly flout the new standards. “These are serious sanctions — to stand a man aside or to remove his faculties — but given the seriousness of what we are discussing, they are measures that I would consider,” he said.

Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, questioned whether a clause allowing the company to limit publication to protect church “contacts” was confusing and too broad.

AAP