The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has formally rejected a recommendation from the child sexual abuse royal commission that reports of abuse disclosed to priests during confession be reported to police.

Eight months after the landmark child abuse inquiry delivered its final report, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia on Friday released a joint report in response to the dozens of recommendations applicable to Catholic institutions.

While it accepted 98% of recommendations, including writing to the Holy See in Rome urging it to make the selection criteria for employing bishops public, and asking the Holy See to consider making celibacy voluntary, it did not budge on the issue of breaking the seal of confession to compel adults to report abuse to authorities.

“As indicated, the council supported, and continues to support, retention of the civil law protection for the seal of the confessional,” the report said. “In relation to mandatory reporting, the council supported, and supports, the attainment of consistency across the jurisdictions and, subject to protection for the seal, the inclusion of persons in religious ministry in the class of mandatory reporters.”

As per the royal commission’s recommendations, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference had written to the Holy See, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic church in Rome, requesting canon law be amended to create a new series of canons specifically relating to child sexual abuse. It agreed “all delicts relating to child sexual abuse should be articulated as canonical crimes against the child, not as moral failings or as breaches of the ‘special obligation’ of clerics and religious to observe celibacy”.

It accepted “in principle” the recommendation to conduct a national review of the governance and management structures of dioceses and parishes, including in relation to issues of transparency and accountability.

But when the royal commission delivered the findings of its five-year inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse in December, many Catholic priests and archbishops rejected the recommendation that they break the seal of confession if they suspected abuse, with some saying they would rather go to jail.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, said that too many priests, brothers, sisters and lay people in Australia failed in their duty to protect and honour the dignity of children.

“Many bishops failed to listen, failed to believe, and failed to act,” he said.

“Those failures allowed some abusers to offend again and again, with tragic and sometimes fatal consequences. The bishops and leaders of religious orders pledge today: Never again.”

The royal commission heard that on countless occasions notorious paedophiles were moved by senior figures in the church between parishes, where they continued to abuse children. Sometimes offenders were sent overseas for religious education rather than reported to police.

“There will be no cover-up,” Coleridge said.

“There will be no transferring of people accused of abuse. There will be no

placing the reputation of the Church above the safety of children.”

The church has already begun to change a number of practices, including in the screening of those training to be priests or religious sisters and brothers.

Leonie Sheedy, who co-founded the Care Leavers Australasia Network to support those abused in out-of-home care, said she was pleased to see so many recommendations had been accepted. But she was disappointed that so many of the recommendations involved the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference having to write to the Holy See for approval.

“Why do they need permission from the Pope, a man from Argentina, for approval to implement the recommendations for the safety of Australian children?” she said.

“It’s not good enough.”

On the issue of celibacy, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference report said: “This matter should be brought to the attention of the Holy See working group, in particular requesting a study be undertaken on the impact of mandatory celibacy on the behaviour of perpetrators of child sexual abuse and on the influence of clericalism in the institutional response to the abuse by the Church.”

Coleridge was pressed on the issue during the press conference in Sydney on Friday and admitted that the prospect of the Holy See acting on recommendations around celibacy was “unlikely”.

“... A quick or dramatic change in the universal discipline of clerical celibacy, I think it is unlikely,” he said. “But there are certain others that the people in Rome in fact, with whom I have met, would say that there is a possibility of some kind of movement.”

The Vatican has not responded to questions sent by Guardian Australia about its response to the royal commission’s recommendations.

The royal commission found that while celibacy for clergy was not a direct cause of abuse, it elevated the risk when compulsorily celibate male clergy or religious figures had privileged access to children.

Asked why the secrecy of confession was being maintained when it came to child abuse, Coleridge said the term “secrecy” was perhaps misleading.

“The word secret gives the impression that perhaps is misleading, it is about confidentiality,” he said.

“But there is nothing about the kind of confidentiality that the pontifical secret talks about that would in anyway impede mandatory reporting and so on, so I personally think a lot of the talk about the pontifical secret is misleading and a little bit of a red herring. As a bishop it doesn’t impinge upon my action and hasn’t impinged upon my action at all.”

Dr Judy Courtin, a lawyer who represents those who were sexually abused and their families, said the church shouldn’t be overly praised for adopting the commission’s recommendations.

“The new standards and guidelines, with respect, are not rocket science or profound - such standards and guidelines are/should have been the norm always,” she told Guardian Australia.

“About twelve of the recommendations with respect to reform of Canon law - all but one of these, the Holy See has ‘been informed’ - this is concerning knowing the snail’s pace and lack of transparency and secrecy of the Holy See.”



She added that breaking the seal of the confessional should be non-negotiable when child abuse was alleged or reported.

“The protection and safety of children are paramount, full stop.,” she said. “The church promotes that fact that the sanctity of the confessional has it spiritual roots in hundreds of years of Catholic doctrine and that the penitent is speaking to god through the priest in the confession. I say, the Catholic church needs to enter modern times.”

