The Pope may be backsliding on his crackdown on paedophile priests as Vatican bureaucrats are doing all they can to undermine reform efforts, a senior Australian Catholic official has warned.

Francis Sullivan who leads the Australian church’s response to a four-year investigation into child abuse, says the  Church in Australia could end up as a “marginalised rump” unless there is real change to an institutional culture hell-bent on self-protection and self-preservation.

“You have to seriously wonder whether this isn’t the Pope backsliding on what has been a strong and determined crackdown on offending priests and the circumstances that allowed abuse to take place,” Sullivan said…