# Australian Royal Commission on child abuse **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 14, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012 "2012-11-14T18:52:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blueslipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@blueslipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blueslipper)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012/1 "2012-11-14T18:52:10Z")
I am happy to see the Australian Government is to have an Australian Royal Commission on child abuse. I hope it will be broad and lasts for years. Although I may not agree with many things Andrew Bolt says, I agree with him in this article [http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/theres-a-danger-a-royal-commission-will-do-too-little-good-and-too-much-harm/story-e6freal3-1226516850440](http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/theres-a-danger-a-royal-commission-will-do-too-little-good-and-too-much-harm/story-e6freal3-1226516850440) Here are the three greatest dangers: 1. It becomes an anti-Catholic crusade 2. It treats allegations as proof 3. It doesn’t stop the worst sex abuse today. * * * See this debate on the ABC’s The Drum [The Drum Monday 12 November - ABC News](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-12/the-drum-monday-12-november/4367940) It amazes me that people think they can criticise the Catholic church and/or religion with so little knowledge of it. The media in Australia is especially guilty of this. I would not think I could criticise a church or religion unless I had studied it academically or been part of it as a member for years. Before these people criticise the Catholic church I would like to know whether they would also criticise any other church or religion. I hope this thread does not concentrate only on the Catholic church. The Australian Royal Commission on child abuse will not. There is a lot of politics around the media criticising the Catholic church here in Australia as the leader of the opposition is catholic. ---
**Author:** ![blueslipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@blueslipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blueslipper)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012/2 "2012-11-14T20:22:28Z")
Nobody interested? Bump ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012/3 "2012-11-14T22:15:27Z")
What is it that you want to debate? Whether this is a good idea? How it should be conducted? > [@blueslipper](#): > > I am happy to see the Australian Government is to have an Australian Royal Commission on child abuse. I hope it will be broad and lasts for years. > Although I may not agree with many things Andrew Bolt says, I agree with him in this article [http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/theres-a-danger-a-royal-commission-will-do-too-little-good-and-too-much-harm/story-e6freal3-1226516850440](http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/theres-a-danger-a-royal-commission-will-do-too-little-good-and-too-much-harm/story-e6freal3-1226516850440) > > Here are the three greatest dangers: > > 1. It becomes an anti-Catholic crusade > 2. It treats allegations as proof > 3. It doesn’t stop the worst sex abuse today. > > * * * > > See this debate on the ABC’s The Drum > [The Drum Monday 12 November - ABC News](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-12/the-drum-monday-12-november/4367940) > > **It amazes me that people think they can criticise the Catholic church and/or religion with so little knowledge of it. The media in Australia is especially guilty of this. > I would not think I could criticise a church or religion unless I had studied it academically or been part of it as a member for years.** > Before these people criticise the Catholic church I would like to know whether they would also criticise any other church or religion. > I hope this thread does not concentrate only on the Catholic church. The Australian Royal Commission on child abuse will not. > > There is a lot of politics around the media criticising the Catholic church here in Australia as the leader of the opposition is catholic. Bolding mine. That is a ridiculous standard. So only Catholic academics can criticize the Church and everyone else needs to keep out of it? I don’t care about the beliefs, theology, or history of the church when it comes to child abuse. None of that matters. All institutions, religious or secular, should be held to the same legal standards. Any organization that is large enough will have abuses and misdeeds committed by its members. If a large number of children are involved child abuse will occur. From all I have read the level of abuse in the church is not statistically different than other similar organizations. They should not be held to fault if some number of individuals in their group are bad actors. Where there CC has seemingly gone wrong is the level of institutional cover up and enabling they have done all over the world. Consider the current Pope, in his last job as a Cardinal, was threatening excommunication for anyone talking about or reporting the issue. Bottom line, any group that actively covers up child abuse is a problem. And the higher up the coverup goes, the harder the law should come down on the organization. And I don’t need to know anything about the organization, its history, or its motivations, to decide that. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012/4 "2012-11-14T23:16:27Z")
My concern is that this will be side wide that they don’t go deep, I wish they had stuck with the original intent of looking at the Catholic Church. But yes fantastic news, about time… ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012/5 "2012-11-15T10:20:21Z")
> [@blueslipper](#): > > Here are the three greatest dangers: > > 1. It becomes an anti-Catholic crusade That would be ironic. > [@](#): > > I would not think I could criticise a church or religion unless I had studied it academically or been part of it as a member for years. That is just pure and utter bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012/6 "2012-11-15T10:41:46Z")
> [@blueslipper](#): > > It amazes me that people think they can criticise the Catholic church and/or religion with so little knowledge of it. The media in Australia is especially guilty of this. > I would not think I could criticise a church or religion unless I had studied it academically or been part of it as a member for years. The Catholic Church is an organisation that was actively conspiring to protect rapists from justice, and thereby is complicit in their continued crimes. There can be no mitigating circumstance, no excuse for what they did. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012/7 "2012-11-15T10:50:40Z")
> [@blueslipper](#): > > It amazes me that people think they can criticise the Catholic church and/or religion with so little knowledge of it. The media in Australia is especially guilty of this. > I would not think I could criticise a church or religion unless I had studied it academically or been part of it as a member for years. This here is bullshit. I grew up a catholic in Australia. Left the church at 20, some 20 odd years ago. Even back then it was clear there were major problems with abuse but the church hierarchy was trying to keep things quiet. > [@blueslipper](#): > > Before these people criticise the Catholic church I would like to know whether they would also criticise any other church or religion. List any religions or organisations that have covered up child abuse and I’ll throw just as much shit at them. > [@Grumman](#): > > The Catholic Church is an organisation that was actively conspiring to protect rapists from justice, and thereby is complicit in their continued crimes. There can be no mitigating circumstance, no excuse for what they did. +1 ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012/8 "2012-11-15T11:24:44Z")
> [@blueslipper](#): > > It amazes me that people think they can criticise the Catholic church and/or religion with so little knowledge of it. The media in Australia is especially guilty of this. > I would not think I could criticise a church or religion unless I had studied it academically or been part of it as a member for years. Ridiculous, as others have pointed out. This is a criminal matter; the theology and so forth of the church, or the fact that it _is_ a church is besides the point. Molesting children and covering it up are illegal regardless of what church theology says; it would be just as illegal if it was an entirely non-religious organization. > [@Strassia](#): > > From all I have read the level of abuse in the church is not statistically different than other similar organizations. An article I saw linked about this on another board discussing this Commission: [Catholic clergy the worst abusers, inquiry told](http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/catholic-clergy-the-worst-abusers-inquiry-told-20121019-27vqi.html) > [@](#): > > CATHOLIC clergy commit six times as much abuse as those in the rest of the churches combined, ‘‘and that’s a conservative figure’’, a child protection expert says. > > Patrick Parkinson, a Sydney University law professor, told the state inquiry into how the churches handle sex abuse yesterday that the figures for the Catholic Church were strikingly out of proportion. > > \ > > He said police had statistics for sexual offences by clergy and church workers since January 1956, uncovering ‘‘shocking’’ figures: 2110 offences against 519 victims, overwhelmingly perpetrated by Catholic priests and mostly against boys aged 11 or 12. But in all that time the church had not reported a single crime to police. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Gnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_gnomer/32/3466_2.png) [@Miss\_Gnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Gnomer)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-royal-commission-on-child-abuse/641012/9 "2012-11-17T06:33:37Z")
In Australia there are laws that require professionals who are aware of child abuse to report them to the relevant authorities - why should some people be exempt because of their religion? I have no need to be a member of a religion nor study it academically when it is obvious that it believes that laws do not apply to their members. An organisation actively hiding criminal activity should be a target. Although child abuse occurs in many settings, I hope that the royal commission can identify the organisational practices that have meant abusers were able to hide from prosecution; how we can reform reporting and monitoring of child abuse as well as providing support for victims. I hope this doesn’t focus on individuals - I hope it focuses on changing an existing cover up.