Church Hires Abuse Watchdog

By Jacquelin Magnay and Ean Higgins
The Australian
April 26, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/church-hires-abuse-watchdog/story-fngburq5-1226629617394

THE Catholic Church in Australia has hired an experienced Irish investigator of clerical abuse -- who has called for a complete cleanout of people who ignored child sexual activities -- as the church undergoes further scrutiny in the royal commission.

Ian Elliott, the chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland, will head to Melbourne in the next few months after spending the past six years scrutinising child sexual abuses within the Irish Catholic Church.

Mr Elliot said Australia had to be prepared to be accountable and transparent -- and have evidence that they are being accountable and transparent -- before children can be kept safe and protected.

He said his Irish experience, which included a review of the Diocese of Cloyne and formulating a rigorous review and standards process for child protection that has been adopted by the church, showed Australia could only eradicate child abuse within the church if there was full conviction to do so from the bishop down.

"If we are safeguarding children, we are also safeguarding the church but to do so, everyone within the church has to be held accountable," he said. "Denial is a failed response and it only perpetrates the problems and delays the changes that need to be made.

"The sanctions and advice goes from the bottom right back to the bishop and they not only have to make public statements about what they are doing, they have to show that their statements are the reality.

"We want the evidence that they are backing it up."

Mr Elliott said the suffering of the victims and their families was mindboggling and he predicted the royal commission would undercover "very significant" numbers of people who will be found to be affected and damaged.

But he said he had found the Irish victims to be less concerned about compensation than undergoing the healing process.