In mass to end Vatican summit, Mark Coleridge says the church has been its ‘own worst enemy’

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane has admitted the Catholic church in Australia has fallen down in caring for the survivors of clerical sexual abuse, saying it has been “its own worst enemy”.

Speaking on Sunday in Rome at the end of a Vatican summit on the protection of minors, the archbishop cited the need for transparency, accountability and inclusiveness, saying the summit would lead to practical measures in dealing with abuse.

He said the church in Australia had been “weak” in providing pastoral care to survivors, referring to “the need to listen to survivors, but not just listen – to walk with them”.

“I’m talking very practical ways of accompanying all those who have been abused in whatever way they need to be accompanied,” he said.

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The archbishop also highlighted episcopal responsibility, saying: “Whether bishops were abusers or have been derelict in dealing with abuse, there has to be an effective and practical way to deal with that.”

Pope Francis ended the summit on the sexual abuse of children by clergy on Sunday by calling for an “all-out battle” against a crime that should be “erased from the face of the Earth”.

In his closing address to the almost 200 church leaders, including Coleridge, who had been summoned to Rome, Francis said guidelines on preventing and punishing abuse would be strengthened.

Coleridge delivered the homily at the mass celebrated by the pope that formally ended the conference.

“We will not go unpunished. In abuse and its concealment, the powerful [of the church] show themselves not men of heaven but men of Earth,” he said in his homily.

“At times, however, we have seen victims and survivors as the enemy, but we have not loved them, we have not blessed them. In that sense, we have been our own worst enemy.”

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Coleridge said there was no place in the church for abusers.

“It’s very clear now ... that anyone in the Catholic church in any part of the world who thinks that he or she can get away with sexual abuse of the young and vulnerable, has absolutely nowhere to go,” he said.