The Catholic Church has released a statement confirming its participation to the national redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse in Australia.
Australia have recently conducted a five-year inquiry into sexual abuse in the country's various institutions.
Amongst the disturbing stories, it is said that 7% of Australia's Catholic priests have abused children between the years 1950 and 2010.
Sexual Abuse in Australia
According to a study by Stephanie Anderson, Australia has one of the highest rates of reported sexual assault in the world, but support workers says that the number of offenders facing court and receiving prison sentences is too low.
For example, of those 374 found guilty, a total of 168 people received a full time prison sentence, representing approximately four percent of the incidents originally reported to the police.
Fast forward to 2018
Just recently, the Australian government and various institutions have faced intense pressure to join a compensation program for victims.
The Church said it was "keen to participate" in the scheme, to be coordinated by the Australian government.
"Survivors deserve justice and healing and many have bravely come forward to tell their stories," said Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
The Church is the first non-government organization to join the scheme, which is scheduled to begin in July 2018.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the decision as a "significant development".
Turnbull has previously said that survivors could receive payments of A$150,000 (£85,000; $110,000) each.
However, the exact spectrum of the compensation will be heavily determined by how many governments and institutions opt in.
Furthermore, the royal commission inquiry, which concluded in December, heard more than 8,000 testimonies about abuse in churches, schools and sports clubs.
Religious ministers and school teachers were the most commonly reported committers, the report said. The greatest number were in Catholic institutions.
"It is not a case of a few 'rotten apples'. Society's major institutions have seriously failed," it said in its final report.
The inquiry made more than 400 recommendations, which also includes calling on the Catholic Church to overhaul its celibacy rules.
It also called on priests to face prosecution if they did not report sexual abuse disclosed to them during confession, a move the Church has strongly resisted.
The governments of all Australia's states and territories, except for Western Australia, have signed up to the redress scheme.
