The Catholic Church in Australia is in very deep water. There is widespread public disgust and horror at its failure to stop the sexual abuse of children by a considerable number of its priests. The evidence that has emerged during the hearings of a royal commission into institutional child abuse entirely justifies the description of the Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, of the Church’s response to the victims of the abuse as “a kind of criminal negligence”.

Collectively, Australia’s archbishops have anticipated the likely outcome of the inquiry by what amounts to a plea of guilty, institutionally, while implying that it was an earlier generation of church leaders who must bear the actual blame. The Archbishop of Perth, Timothy Costelloe, said the “abysmal” response to complaints by that earlier generation was due to their complacent belief in the “untouchability of the Church”, making it unaccountable and “a law unto itself”.