Child abuse is church's greatest crisis ever, says archbishop

The Catholic Church faces its greatest crisis of all time in Australia as it grapples with the reality of the pain caused by child sex abuse, Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson says, reports The Daily Telegraph.

In a letter to the state's Catholics responding to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's announcement of a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, 

Archbishop Wilson expressed his "deepest sorrow" to victims of clerical child sex abuse.

"The reality of child abuse is by far the greatest crisis we have faced as a church in this country," he said. "As people of God, we can only feel deep shame over the terrible betrayal of trust and the suffering inflicted on the abused and their families by those members of the church who engaged in this most serious crime."
 

Archbishop Wilson said in the letter the Archdiocese of Adelaide has been at the forefront of child protection in recent years and had introduced many initiatives that had been held up as best practice.

Those measures, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese said, included extensive use of police checks, compulsory training and education in child protection and a proactive approach to creating child safe environments.

"The full details of these initiatives will be provided to the Royal Commission," the spokesperson said.

Archbishop Wilson called the Royal Commission a very important development in Australian society as a whole because it will be the first time when the horrendous issues of abuse will be examined in great detail on a national scale.