Denis Hart, archbishop of Melbourne, “welcomes” the Royal Commission report about official responses to the child sexual abuse that happened in the diocese of Melbourne. According to the Committee, that since 2013 has been sifting through the Australian institutions’ behaviour in cases of abuse, until 1996 in the archdiocese there’s been a “culture of secrecy about reports, that were addressed in a way that protected the archdiocese from scandal and responsibility, giving priority to the interests of the church over those of the victims”. The one to blame was the then archbishop Thomas F. Little, who held the diocese from 1974 to 1996. In a notice issued by the archdiocese’s communication office, mgr. Hart states: “The mismanagement of reports against priests and staff and the ensuing lack of a response to such reports led many victims and their families to feel useless grief”. The archbishop “apologised sincerely and took responsibility” for all those times in which “abuse happened because of the passive attitude or inaction of my predecessors”. Mgr. Hart said he is “confident” that all ecclesial institutions in the diocese now have “policies, codes of conduct and procedures to offer safe places for children and to handle any report”, which is evidence of everyone’s “firm commitment” to “the safety and wellbeing of the children who are entrusted to us”.