(CNN)A wide-reaching investigation into child abuse across Australia whose revelations shocked the nation has called for sweeping changes to be made, including recommending an end to mandatory celibacy in the Catholic Church.
The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report estimates tens of thousands of children have been abused in Australian institutions, in what the commission described as a "national tragedy."
A total of 189 new recommendations were made by the commissioners to address what they described as a "serious failure" by Australia's institutions to protect its most vulnerable citizens.
"We now know that countless thousands of children have been sexually abused in many institutions in Australia. In many institutions, multiple abusers have sexually abused children," the report said.
"We must accept that institutional child sexual abuse has been occurring for generations."
The Catholic Church alone was the target of about 20 recommendations. In what would amount to a radical shake-up of centuries of tradition and religious orthodoxy, the recommendations called for protocols for screening priests, mandatory reporting of religious confessions and a suggestion to end mandatory celibacy for priests.
Of the survivors who reported being abused in a religious institution, 61.4% said it occurred in a Catholic organization.
"The failure to understand that the sexual abuse of a child was a crime with profound impacts for the victim, and not a mere moral failure capable of correction by contrition and penance ... is almost incomprehensible," the report said.
Since 2012, the report's findings have shocked Australians with the breadth of abuse inside the country's religious and state institutions, such as churches, youth groups, care homes and schools.
In February 2017, the commission revealed 7% of Australian Catholic priests had been accused of abusing children inside religious institutions. In some orders, more than 40% of brothers were implicated.
Several prominent Catholic figures in Australia have already apologized for the commission's findings. On Friday, Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council, said in a statement the recommendations were "very sensible and practical."
"What now needs to be made clear by the Church leadership is that they take these recommendations and findings seriously and that they are willing to act swiftly in implementing the findings," he said.
Sullivan added although the commission may have finished, the work of implementing its findings was "only now just starting."
The report also called for a national memorial to be constructed in honor of the victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse in Canberra, the national capital.
Announced in 2012 under former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the royal commission interviewed almost 8,000 survivors of child sexual abuse over five years, and referred more than 2,500 matters to police.
Following the report's release, Gillard thanked the commissioners on her official social media.
"Our nation is indebted to you and to the survivors who fought so hard for justice and a safer future for our children," she said.