Australian Church creates new group to monitor response to abuse

Australia’s Catholic bishops and religious congregations have established a new advisory group to help with monitoring the Catholic Church’s ongoing response to the child sexual abuse scandal.

Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, who heads the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said the new Implementation Advisory Group will monitor the response to the findings of the Royal Commission, as well as the recommendations of the church’s own Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

In a statement published on Thursday, Archbishop Hart and Sr Ruth Durick, president of Catholic Religious Australia, said three key groups will now be working together to take forward the work arising from the Royal Commission and the work of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

These are an independent not-for-profit company called Catholic Professional Standards Ltd, a National Redress Reference Group and the Implementation Advisory Group.

The chair of the new advisory group has been named as Jack de Groot, CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society in New South Wales. He said the role of the group is “to provide leadership by influencing all Catholic organisations – whether lay, religious or episcopal – in ensuring that we move to build a healthy culture that lives from a theology that has learned the lessons of the child abuse tragedy”.