Cardinal Pell's sex abuse charges come as no surprise to those familiar with the Church's attitude

The Catholic Church has systematically tried to discredit and silence sex abuse survivors, while forgiving the perpetrators

Cardinal Pell is just another example of the endemic abuse within the Catholic church (Rick Rycroft/AP)

Unless you have been a victim of childhood sexual abuse it is difficult for people to understand the often life-long impact that it can have. Survivors suffer low self-esteem, guilt, shame and often have mental health problems which can lead to addiction and even suicide.

When that abuse is committed by a priest, it is compounded by the abuse of power as well as being linked to the victim's faith. This often leaves survivors conflicted and more vulnerable to being exploited by church authorities who seem to be prone to forgiving the abusers and blaming the victims.

The vast majority of children do not report their abuse at the time, most of those who disclose or seek help do so well into adulthood. When they do report abuse to the churches they are often branded a liars or fantasists and in many cases little real action is taken.

Both major churches, Roman Catholic and Anglican, have consistently demonstrated that they are more interested in protecting the status and reputation of the institution, than in protecting children and the vulnerable, and there is little pastoral or counselling support for the victims.

The priests who are the subject of allegations are often moved to another parish, diocese or even country, and simply allowed to start all over again. It has been extremely rare for church authorities to report the allegations to statutory authorities, their instinct is to "deal with it" in house.

This not only means that they often escape justice but also that they go on to achieve senior positions, allowing them to protect other abusers and cover up their crimes too.

Only last week the Gibb Report into Bishop Peter Ball demonstrated how the then-Archbishop of Canterbury failed to pass evidence to the police and worked to rehabilitate and restore the reputation of the abuser rather than support the victim. Worse than that, there was a collective effort from various bishops to discredit the victim, who ultimately took his own life.

This also led to a delay of over 20 years for Bishop Peter Ball to finally face justice.

The Roman Catholic church has behaved just as badly, if not worse, as has been shown by the hundreds of cases of clerical abuse that have been uncovered over the past 30 years. The Vatican often denounces the sexual abuse of children but takes little action to insure that abusers face justice and vigorously defends itself against civil cases brought by victims seeking compensation.

False allegations are extremely rare and for multiple victims who do not know one another to give corroborating accounts that are convincing enough for police and prosecutors to bring charges is virtually impossible, yet once again we see the victims being branded as liars in the case of Cardinal Pell.

The churches teach us that in order for us to be forgiven that we must first truly repent but they show little sign of true repentance themselves or any meaningful acts of contrition or atonement. They continually react to crises instead of pro-actively reaching out to victims.

The churches cannot go on policing themselves, they have shown time and again that they cannot be trusted. Safeguarding and child protection should be overseen by external, secular authorities.

Inquiries such as the IICSA and Australian Royal Commission need to compel the churches to hand over their files and the abusers that they seem to have been protecting.

Until the reporting of child abuse becomes mandatory, this abuse will continue and those who cover it up will continue to go unpunished.

Phil Johnson is the chair of Minister & Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors