Catholic Church 'should end clergy celibacy', says Australia commission

An inquiry into child sex abuse in Australia says the Catholic Church should end mandatory celibacy among clergy.

It also suggested that priests be prosecuted for failing to report evidence of pedophilia heard in the confessional.

Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse delivered its final 17-volume report and 189 recommendations following a wide-ranging investigation.

Australia's longest-running royal commission - which is the country's highest form of inquiry - has been investigating since 2012 how the Catholic Church and other institutions responded to sexual abuse of children in Australia over 90 years.

The report heard the testimonies of more than 8,000 survivors of child sex abuse.

Of those who were abused in religious institutions, 62% were Catholics.

"We have concluded that there were catastrophic failures of leadership of Catholic Church authorities over many decades," the report said.

One of these is for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to call on the Vatican to consider introducing voluntary celibacy for members of the clergy.

The report also asks for more clarity on whether the seal of secrecy in confession covers information that a child has been sexually abused, and whether absolution of a perpetrator should be withdrawn until they confess to the police.

Catholic clerics who testified to the royal commission gave varying opinions about what if anything a priest could divulge about what was said in a confessional about child abuse.

The commission's recommendations, which with interim reports total 409, include making failure to report child sexual abuse a criminal offense. Clerics would not be exempt from being charged.

The law should exclude any existing excuse or privilege relating to a religious confessional, it said.

Pope Francis's former finance minister, Cardinal George Pell, testified in a video link from the Vatican in 2016 about his time as a priest and bishop in Australia.

Pell this year became the most senior Catholic official to face sex offence charges.

Catholicism is the largest denomination in majority-Christian Australia.