Catholic Church In Australian State Reports To Parliament On Past Child Sex Abuse Data

In the Australian state of Victoria, the state Parliament's Family and Community Development Committee is conducting an inquiry on the handling of child abuse by religious and other organizations.  The deadline for submissions of written statements and reports to the Committee was Friday. In a press release Friday, the Archbishop of Melbourne announced on that he would file a report titled Facing the Truth on behalf of the leaders of the Catholic Church in Victoria. While the full report has not been publicly released, the press release says that:

In the past 16 years, about 620 cases of criminal child abuse have been upheld by the Church in Victoria. Most claims relate to incidents from 30 and up to 80 years ago.  The Church has received very few complaints of abuse that has taken place since 1990.

The press release also renews the Church's apology to victims and says the report details the changes that have been made in dealing with victims and offenders. The Australian reports on the largely critical reactions of victims and their advocates to the Church's report.