Catholic priests in Australia should not be left alone with children and glass confessionals should be installed in churches to prevent paedophile scandals, according to a draft code of conduct for priests. The Catholic Church plan announced yesterday effectively bans priests from seeing children alone. "It's about reducing risk - preventing environments being created where abuse can occur and reducing risk of false allegations being made against clergy," said Father David Cappo, head of the church's professional standards committee. "We are looking at guidelines for clergy that will make us all more accountable. If you are counselling a child then you do not do it alone or behind a closed door."
Under the draft code confessionals should have glass viewing panels, a move which would force the renovation of virtually every Catholic church in the country.
All of Australia's major churches have admitted that their clergy have for decades abused hundreds of children in their orphanages, churches and schools.
An official report in New South Wales state in August said there was a substantial incidence of sexual abuse in Australian churches, which protected paedophile clergy.
Following a series of convictions of priests and teaching brothers in Catholic schools, Australian bishops made an unprecedented apology to victims of sexual abuse a year ago.
Father Cappo said that although codes of conduct had been prepared in United States dioceses and in parts of Europe, this was the first effort to establish national guidelines.
"Sexual abuse has often been regarded by churches as a problem of `moral failure', rather than a criminal offence, calling for help rather than punishment," the report said.
"Spiritualising the problem is dangerous because it involves the assumption that once confessed. . . the problem has been resolved. This response is inappropriate because many such offenders have simply continued to abuse over the years."
The report said many clergy believed that the vow of celibacy was confined to heterosexual relations and did not extend to indecent acts with boys or adolescent males.
Homosexuality is as much a product of society and the environment as it is of genetics, researchers conducting a six-year joint Australian-US study project have said.
A senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, Dr Michael Dunne, and a Northwestern University researcher, Dr Michael Bailey, interviewed 4,900 twins in Australia as part of their study. They said preliminary findings showed sexual orientation in men was mostly determined by genetics but expression of sexuality depended on the environment.