Australia’s Catholic bishops and religious congregations have established a new advisory group to help with monitoring the Catholic Church’s ongoing response to the child sexual abuse scandal. The chair of the new advisory group has been named as Jack de Groot, CEO of St Vincent de Paul Society in New South Wales.
As reported by en.vaticannews.va, Jack de Groot remarked that “The role of the group is to provide leadership by influencing all Catholic organisations – whether lay, religious or episcopal – in ensuring that we move to build a healthy culture that lives from a theology that has learned the lessons of the child abuse tragedy”. His Grace Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, who heads the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, noted that “The new Implementation Advisory Group will monitor the response to the findings of the Royal Commission, as well as the recommendations of the church’s own Truth, Justice and Healing Council.”
Three key groups will now be working together to take forward the work arising from the Royal Commission and the work of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council. These are an independent not-for-profit company called Catholic Professional Standards Ltd, a National Redress Reference Group and the Implementation Advisory Group.
