Vatican took away checks and balances, royal commission told

The Vatican was allegedly instrumental in propagating a culture of secrecy through canon laws to deal with abuse claims.

Father Thomas Doyle at the child-abuse royal commission in Sydney. Picture: John Fotiadis

The Vatican was allegedly instrumental in propagating a culture of secrecy through a set of “self-impose­d” canon laws and directives from Rome to deal with claims of child sexual abuse, a royal commission has heard.

Day four of the final hearing of the Royal Commission into Instit­utional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard evidence yesterday from 10 witnesses, specialising in theology and canon law — a form of legislation created by the Vatic­an to deal with crimes by clerics.

The commission heard of significant issues where the church’s laws had developed a practice of secrecy among leaders, which alleged­ly failed to deal approp­riate­ly with cases of child sexual abuse.

From secret archives containing allegations of child sex abuse to strict confidentiality orders betwee­n offenders and their priests during confession, the commission was asked to recommend sweeping changes to reportin­g of historical child sex abuse as well as procedures in the church to manage offenders seeking to absolve their guilt through the act of confession.

Canon lawyer Father Thomas Doyle told the commission canon law had been used by the Catholic Church as “an excuse for not proceeding in taking direct action against reports of sexual abuse”.

“It has been used as an excuse for not reporting to civil authorities and it has been used as an excus­e for allowing accused ­clerics to continue in ministry,” he said.

Dr Doyle said the judicial, executive and legislative arms of government manifested in a single­ figurehead in the Catholic Church, leaving “no checks and balances”.

“It is much easier for an eccles­iastical person to act ... outside the norms of the law and there would be no way to rein that person in,” he said.

Dr Doyle’s evidence came as commissioner Robert Fitzgerald said the royal commission would likely recommend “reportable conduct regimes similar to that which exists in NSW” to effectively override the Catholic Church’s practice of secrecy.

Under section 316 of the NSW Crimes Act, it is illegal to withhold information that could assist in the prosecution of an offender, a law which Victoria introduced in 2014.

Dr Doyle referred the commission to the church code list of penalties­ that could be imposed on an offending priest, including dismiss­al from the ministry.

“In some instances we have seen, over the past few years, where men have been dismissed or tried by an administrative proces­s by the Holy See, they have been sentence to what is called a ‘life of prayer and penance’,” he said.

Canon law expert Kieran ­Tapsell told the royal commission a church decree allowing a five-year window for victims to report their abuse had allowed offending priests to continue in the ministry.

“If a child was sexually abused at 10 years old and if they didn’t complain to the church by the age of 15, the canonical crime which would allow for dismissal dis­appeared,” he said.

While Mr Tapsell said that the limitation period was extended to 20 years in 2010, the average time between an incident of sexual abuse and a complaint being lodged was about 33 years.