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1. Hope this applies to all institutions, especially government ones. Otherwise, it would not help the victims who have been abused elsewhere.

   Posted By: M. Lyons

2. Can the Church be sued?
   We, the people who believe in Christ, make up His Church.
   And all the money we donate to the Church and the buildings, including schools and church buildings does not belong to the priests or bishops.
   So can we sue the priests or bishops? I say no, because they cannot pay up. Because the priests or bishops do not own anything.
   We the the believers, not the priests or bishops, own all the infrastructure.
   We do not employ the priests and bishops. They are there as the representatives of Christ on a volunteer basis.

   Posted By: anthony loh

3. Yes I hope it is all institutions who face censure regarding the past mishandling and covering up of sexual abuse.
   Sadly the Catholic Church has been found wanting in this sad regard not just in Australia but worldwide.
   The church should not be rewarded for it's past poor response to justice for the victims of these crimes.
   The harm done to the Faith and trust of thousands of Catholics and others of goodwill is a terrible scandal, and is not conducive to spreading the Gospel of Jesus.

   Posted By: Margaret M. Coffey

4. I urge you to 'google' Bella Dodd for an alternative perspective on where the current woes of the Church originate.
   Margaret, you are correct that the faith of thousands of Catholics has been dented or destroyed by this and other actions of the Church. Bella Dodd predicted this in the 50's

   Posted By: LM

5. There is no doubt that some members of the Catholic Church did not act as they should have with the cases that they had to deal with.
   This was a failing on their part – not the Church’s. The secular media does not make this distinction – deliberately,
   Child abuse is not purely a Catholic issue. The Child Wise website tells us that one in five children in Australia is victim of abuse.
   Recently, I came to know that someone close to me was abused many years ago. A sexual pervert who was placed in a mental institution walked out and stayed with his brother for a few days in a suburb that had many children. No warning was given and nobody tried to get him back.
   In that time he abused the little boy from the neighbouring house. Will this law cover people like him?
   Will it cover the workings in institutions such as this? By the way, it is not a Catholic one. (So, perhaps, it might not have kept records.)
   A state school teacher once told me that he could tell which of his students were being abused.
   Was he doing anything about it? In answer to that question he just shrugged his shoulders.
   Does this law help these Australians? Does it examine how teachers, principals and government officers behaved and are behaving as far as child abuse is concerned?
   Let us forget the politics and look honestly at the situation. It seriousness demands that we do.
   

   Posted By: M. Lyons

6. So what you are saying, Anthony, is that compensation in the hundreds of thousands of dollars has been and will be paid out to victims of clergy sexual abuse with your (our) money.
   I suspect it's not quite as simple as that.
   My view is that we catholics don't own anything of church property; we can't deal with it. Once the money is given it no longer belongs to us but to the church - the bishops and priests.
   As an aside, most of the funding of school buildings etc comes from the government I believe. But I can see you argument anthony as do the many others who have ceased to make financial contributions based on your reasoning.

   Posted By: B T Walters

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