Two lay people - a former Commissioner of NSW’s Independent Commission Against Corruption, and the Secretary-General of the Australian Medical Association - have been chosen for the two positions to head the council that will oversee the Church's engagement with the Royal Commission into sexual abuse, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) announced yesterday.
The Honourable Barry O'Keefe (pictured, right) AM QC and Mr Francis Sullivan will be chair and CEO respectively of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, Archbishop Denis Hart, President of the ACBC, said at a press conference in Melbourne.
“I am confident that the Royal Commission will enable an examination of the issues associated with child abuse nationally and the identification of measures for better preventing and responding to child abuse in all those institutions that work with children,” said Archbishop Hart.
Mr O’Keefe is a former Commissioner of NSW’s ICAC, a former Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of NSW, Chairman of Interpol’s International Group of Experts on Corruption, Chairman of the International Anticorruption Conference and was Mayor of Mosman.
He is a consultant to law firm Clayton Utz and was appointed as an Adjunct Professor at Notre Dame University in 2005.
Mr Sullivan has worked in Government and private practice, and has held positions as Secretary-General of the Australian Medical Association, Chief Executive of Catholic Health Australia, and consultant to the Pontifical Counsel for the Pastoral Care of Health Care workers at the Vatican.
He is an Adjunct Professor at Australian Catholic University and was the Chairman of the University’s Canberra Campus Review panel.
Archbishop Hart added: "the Council will comprise men and women with professional and other expertise and importantly will seek to have an effective on-going relationship with people who have been damaged by the sexual abuse scandal".
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