Priest celibacy should be voluntary, says child abuse report

A five-year inquiry into institutional child abuse in Australia has delivered its findings

The chair of the Royal Commission, Justice Peter McClellan
The chair of the Royal Commission, Justice Peter McClellan
(Image credit: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)

An Australian royal commission examining institutional responses to child abuse has suggested that the Catholic Church’s insistence on celibacy among priests has contributed to sexual assaults on children.

The report also called for “religious ministers, out-of-home care workers, childcare workers, registered psychologists and school counsellors [to be] obliged by law to report sexual abuse”, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

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