Church abuse protocol is no joke

A victim faces one additional hurdle when suing for abuse by a priest or other church personnel. Often the alleged abuse will have occurred many years ago and now there is a new supervising bishop or superior. The previous bishop or superior may even have died. Who is to be sued?

In 2007, the New South Wales Court of Appeal clarified that in the case of the Catholic Church, there was no point in trying to sue the “Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church”, the statutory trust corporation that holds title to all the church lands of a diocese. That corporation may hold the assets but it does not supervise, employ or oversee clergy or other church workers.

The Church should not give any appearance of hiding behind the corporate veil. Justice demands that present church leaders agree to satisfy any judgment debt against their predecessors or their deceased predecessors' estates when there is an allegation of past failure to supervise or adequately investigate a sexual predator in the ranks. Any damages should be paid from church assets.

The Towards Healing protocol is not a substitute for criminal prosecution of sex abusers. Nor is it a cheap alternative to civil liability for damages. It is a procedure available by choice to victims in addition to criminal prosecution of perpetrators or pursuit of civil damages for negligence by church authorities. Whenever a complaint concerns an alleged crime, the protocol states that “the Church has a strong preference that the allegation be referred to police and, if desired, the complainant will be assisted to do this”.

Many victims of abuse have been helped by this professionally administered protocol. The church and victims would be worse off without this additional path to compassion, care and justice.