Church sex abuse victims urged to be more militant

(CW) Rev Thomas Doyle

A prominent anti-clerical abuse advocate says Australia is decades behind the United States when it comes to dealing with the victims of sexual abuse.

Reverend Tom Doyle, a Catholic priest who is also a vocal critic of the Church, says Australian abuse victims should become more militant in taking on the Church through the courts and in the media.

Reverend Doyle is in Sydney to attend Australia's first convention for the survivors of clergy abuse, which begins today.

"The bottom line with all of this is the horrendous spectacle of little boys and girls being raped and molested by Catholic priests - and members of other denominations - and getting away with it because their superiors, the leaders of those denominations, didn't favour the victims - they favoured the perpetrators," he said.

Reverend Doyle made his name when he warned the Catholic Church about the looming sexual abuse problem more than two decades ago.

Since then, he has become an advocate for many of the victims.

"Appealing to the Church, saying 'please help us, this is bad stuff, please make it right' is a waste of time because the bishops, all they want to do is either cover it up or make it go away," he said.

"They have never on their own, without force, reached out and done the right thing for survivors.

"The tradition has always been simply to transfer the perpetrators from one place to another and if the survivors make any noise, intimidate them into silence."

Nikki Wells, the organiser of today's forum and the founder of Survivors Australia, says she understands what victims are going through.

"As a survivor of child abuse I understand that going through the system of disclosing your abuse and going through the criminal system or civil system or even approaching the church is fraught with danger and re-abuse issues," she said.

"So with this conference I intend to raise awareness of the plight of these victims."

'No legal pressure'

But some experts say the Catholic Church is sincere in its efforts to help the victims of sexual abuse.

Paul Collins, a religious commentator and a highly regarded expert on Catholicism, says the Church does realise the problem.

"They know they have to do something about it," he said.

"They know they have to come to the party with regard to helping victims, with regard to offering money to victims, offering to help them in every way they possibly can.

"But the difficulty is that because the legal pressure is not there that is there in the United States, there is a tendency to take the easy way out - to offer $50,000, $75,000 and hope they'll get away with that."

Mr Collins says the Church should be completely focused on the rights of victims but he says he does not necessarily agree with all aspects of the approach taken in the US.

"I think there is a kind of business-as-usual feel about what goes on here in Australia and perhaps victims and lawyers could be a little bit more proactive in challenging the Church," he said.

"But at the same time, I think in some ways when I look at the American system I really have to honestly say that I think it can be, at times, over the top."

AM contacted the Catholic Archdiocese in Sydney about the forum. It has yet to respond.

SIC: ABC/AUS