Sexual abuse complaints in Melbourne in the past decade had dwindled to “less than a handful” and few complaints had been made about abuse that had occurred since the 1970s, according to Archbishop Denis Hart, the leader of Australia’s most populous diocese, writes Mark Brolly. But Archbishop Hart also acknowledged that the scourge of sexual abuse continued to cause great distress, “and in many cases a crisis of faith” among Catholics.

In a pastoral letter on sexual abuse sent to all 220 parishes of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, which has more than one million Catholics, the archbishop offered a sincere and unreserved apology to all victims of sexual abuse and to their families. Melbourne, alone among Australia’s 33 archdioceses and dioceses, does not use the Towards Healing protocol adopted elsewhere but instead the Melbourne Response, adopted by then Archbishop George Pell in 1996. The Melbourne Response has been criticised as being too legalistic compared with the more pastoral emphasis attributed to the Towards Healing protocol but Archbishop Hart defended the approach, introduced in consultation with the Victoria police, as the most compassionate way of caring for victims.

The Tablet, 17 July 2010.