Australian child abuse inquiry recommends end to mandatory celibacy for clergy

An Australian inquiry into child abuse recommended Friday that the Roman Catholic Church lift its demand ofcelibacy from clergy and that priests be prosecuted for failing toreport evidence of pedophilia heard in aconfessional.

The 17-volume document from the Royal Commission intoInstitutional Responses to Child Abuse marks the end of one of theworld's biggest inquiries into child abuse. The government willdecide whether to enact its recommendations.

Not a case of a few rotten apples.- Royal Commission intoInstitutional Responses to Child Abuse

The five-year investigation found "multiple and persistentfailings of institutions to keep children safe, the cultures of
secrecy and coverup, and the devastating effects child sexualabuse can have on an individual's life,"the commission said in a statement.

The report detailed tens of thousands of child victims,saying their abusers were "not a case of a few rotten apples."

"We will never know the true number," it read.

The inquiry spanned religious, government, educational andprofessional organizations, but heard many accounts allegingabuse coverups in the Australian Catholic Church, includingallegations of moving priests suspected of abuse betweenparishes to avoid detection.

Of survivors who reported abuse in religious institutions,more than 60 percent cited the Catholic Church, which demonstrated "catastrophic failures of leadership of Catholic Church authorities over manydecades,"particularlybefore the 1990s, the report said.

Prosecute clergy for failing to report abuse

Recommendations include the Australian Catholic BishopsConference request that the Vatican consider introducing voluntary celibacy for clergy.

The bishops' body should also request clarity on whetherinformation received in the confessional that a child has been
sexually abused is covered by the seal of secrecy and whetherabsolution of a perpetrator should be withdrawn until the
perpetrator confesses to police.

Catholic clerics who testified to the royal commission gavevarying opinions about what, if anything, a priest could divulge about what was said in a confessional about child abuse.

The commission's recommendations, which with interim reportstotal 409, include making failure to report child sexual abuse acriminal offence. Clerics would not be exempt from being charged.

The law should exclude any existing excuse or privilege relatingto a religious confessional.

Pope Francis's former finance minister, Cardinal George Pell,testified in a video link from the Vatican in 2016 about his time asa priest and bishop in Australia. Pell this year became the mostsenior Catholic official to face sex offence charges.

Through his lawyers, Pell has vowed to fight the charges ofsexual assault offences.

The commission found that the church's responses to complaintsand concerns about clerics in Australia were "remarkably anddisturbingly similar."

'I cannot break the seal'

The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference,Archbishop Denis Hart, said many of the commission's recommendations"would have significant impact on the way the Catholic Church andothers operate in Australia."

The Vatican was already giving "serious consideration" toquestions raised by the commission about the extent of the seal ofthe confession and whether child molesters who did not confess topolice could be absolved, Hart said.

A similar recommendation was made during Ireland's 2009child abuse inquiry, leading to a mandatory reporting law in2015. Some U.S. states have similar requirements.

"I cannot break the seal. The penalty for any priest breakingthe seal is excommunication; being passed out of the church," Hartsaid. "I revere the law of the land and I trust it, but this is asacred, spiritual charge before God which I must honour, and I haveto try and do what I can do with both."

He said the Australian bishops would put the celibacyrecommendations to the Vatican, but added: "I believe that there arereal values in celibacy."

The commission found that celibacy was not a direct cause ofchild sexual abuse, but was a contributing factor, especially whencombined with other risk factors.

The Vatican didn't comment on those recommendations. But churchofficials have previously rejected any link between celibacy andabuse, and reaffirmed the sanctity of the confessional.

The Vatican said only that thedevastating findings were"thorough" and deserveto be "studied seriously." Itsaid it was committed to helping Australian victims of pedophilepriests find healing and justice.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a Catholic, recommended all Australians read the commission's report.

"What that commission has done is exposed a national tragedy.It's an outstanding exercise in love, and I thank the commissionersand those who had the courage to tell their stories," Turnbullsaid.

Catholicism is the largest denomination in majority-ChristianAustralia.