Vic: Victims' group calls for priests to be defrocked

AAP General News (Australia)
04-22-2010
Vic: Victims' group calls for priests to be defrocked

MELBOURNE, April 22 AAP - A church-related victims' group is calling on the Vatican
to defrock about 100 Melbourne priests implicated in sexual abuse claims which have been
substantiated by church investigations.

The Melbourne Victims' Collective, a group of 27 primary and secondary alleged sex
abuse victims, wants the priests stripped of their titles and privileges.

A Fairfax newspaper (The Age) reported on Thursday that almost 300 sexual abuse allegations
had been substantiated in Melbourne by the Catholic church since 1996, but only one priest
had been defrocked.

"We are shocked to hear that the Melbourne Catholic Church has official knowledge of
these sexual abuses, including pedophilia, through the last 14 years of their internal
complaints process and still allows offending priests to retain their title and remain
in the Melbourne church community," Melbourne Victims' Collective (MCV) spokesperson Helen
Last said in a statement.

"The time for covering this up must end."

Ms Last said the Melbourne system set up in 1996 protected the church from negative
publicity and left victims and their families struggling to live normal lives.

She told AAP the group was forming a petition to be handed to the Vatican's representative
in Australia, which called for the 100 perpetrators to be assessed for the fast-tracking
of the defrocking process.

Ms Last said the group was also calling on the Vatican to send a delegate to Melbourne,
as it has to Ireland, to investigate the mismanagement of victims' complaints.

She said without stripping those clergy of their roles and responsibilities, they could
continue to live and work in the church community.

"It helps them groom further victims," she told AAP.

Church hierarchy was unavailable for comment.

AAP md/pmu/ht

KEYWORD: ABUSE

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