Revisit N.L. commission into church abuse: nun

Tag: canada

A member of the long-defunct Winter Commission into sexual abuse by priests in Newfoundland and Labrador is trying to revive the inquiry's work 20 years after it was established.

She is doing so as the scandal affecting the church has reached the very top of its hierarchy, with allegations that Pope Benedict XVI and officials under him turned a blind eye to sexual abuse by priests.

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Closer to home, Newfoundland Bishop Raymond Lahey, who went on to lead the diocese of Antigonish, is facing child pornography charges and a civil suit after allegations he sexually abused a boy when he was a priest in St. John's.

Sister Nuala Kenny says the latest controversies prompted her to dust off the Winter Commission's two-decade-old report.

Kenny is one of the people the Catholic Church consulted in 1989 when it launched its investigation into sexual abuse by members of the church in Newfoundland.

Earlier this year, Kenny, a nun and retired pediatrician now living in Halifax, took the Winter Commission's report to Canadian bishops hoping they'll revive its work.

"I believe the Canadian Catholic Church can lead something that is unfinished from Newfoundland," she told CBC News. The Winter Commission said by trying to avoid scandal, the church contributed to the sexual abuse of children.

Its recommendations ranged from how to report abuse to giving more power to lay people, and requiring more accountability from priests and bishops.

Canadian bishops followed some of its advice, such as measures to screen new priests, but Kenny said they never dealt with recommendations that went to the very foundations of the church.

"We are where we are today, with the magnitude, because we did not attend to all these systemic issues," said Kenny.

She said if the church had followed the Winter Commission's advice back then, much of the pain over the last two decades could have been avoided.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland...z0rmXpE2HT