About 500 Australian priests and male religious have been registered on a new national Catholic database to enable bishops and leaders of religious congregations to check the background of clerics and brothers visiting or moving to their region, in the latest move to strengthen the Church's measures to protect children and vulnerable adults against abuse.
The Australian Catholic Ministry Register (ACMR) will provide-up-to-date online information for the first time on whether a priest or male religious has been cleared to work with children in a diocese or congregation.
Fr Tim Brennan, an Executive Officer of the National Professional Standards Office, said: “This new register is an internal tool church leaders can use to better understand the history of clerics and religious entering their diocese. The objective of the ACMR is to implement a secure and auditable web-based system that records the clearance status of priests and male religious."
Fr Brennan said most, if not all, priests and male religious were expected to be on the register within the next year.
The ACMR uses a personalised ID number for each person on the register so that it can be given to a church leader to verify the standing of the visitor.
Mr Francis Sullivan, the CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, said: “As this register grows it will become increasingly difficult for a priest or a brother to try and hide past problems by simply moving to another part of the country.”
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