The Catholic Church in Australia has made a public apology to victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by its priests. However it repeated denials that it had tried to buy their victims' silence.
The apology came in newspaper advertisements across the country placed by the archbishops of the country's two biggest dioceses.
The Archpishop of Sydney, Dr. George Pell and the Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr. Denis Hart, expressed regret over the Church's failure to deal more swiftly with the issue.
The advertisements followed allegations that Archbishop Pell when working in the Melbourne diocese, offered thousands of dollars to victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests in an attempt to buy their silence.
