The head of Australia's Anglican Church expressed sorrow and shame after a government report said some 1,100 people had filed child sexual assault claims against the church over the past 35 years, the Religion News website reports today (March 20, 2017).
The interim report published on March 17 -- which said most children were aged around 11 when they were abused -- came a month after a high level inquiry into child abuse was told the Australian Catholic Church had paid $212 million in compensation to thousands of victims since 1980.
The report -- which was published by the same inquiry, the Royal Commission Into Child Abuse -- said the complaints identified 569 Anglican clergy, teachers, and volunteers as alleged abusers. There were another 133 alleged abusers whose roles at the church were not known.
Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier said he felt a "personal sense of shame and sorrow" at the way the church had apparently silenced victims.
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