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	Pope under Pressure News 24 July 10, 2008 http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2355031,00.html Sydney - Pope Benedict XVI faces pressure to apologise for sex abuse in the Australian Catholic church when he visits the country next week for World Youth Day. While the Sydney event is designed as a celebration of Catholic youth, victims' rights groups say the Pope must use it to acknowledge that many young people's lives have been ruined in Australia by paedophile priests. The call comes after the pontiff made a historic apology for the actions of child-abusing clergy in April during a visit to the United States, where the church also faces a long-running sex scandal. Australian bishops issued an apology for past abuses in 2002 and the country's senior Catholic leader, Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell, has said papal comments on the issue would be "a welcome contribution". "I think it would be appropriate for the Pope to say something on that score," he said. Pell was this week forced to deny allegations he tried to cover up allegations of sex abuse against a priest dating back to 1982 in a scandal he admitted came as an embarrassment days ahead of the Pope's July 13-21 stay. Broken Rites, a support group for victims of church-related sexual abuse, said a papal apology alone would not be enough. "We want a proper apology, followed by action, not just lip service," the group's president Chris MacIsaac told AFP. Long history of sex abuse "For years the church has dragged its feet when it comes to addressing this problem. Time and time again victims come up against a brick wall and find they cannot get support and compensation from the church." MacIsaac said the church in Australia had a long history of sex abuse, which it only began to address about 20 years ago. "It was in the schools run by religious teaching orders - usually brothers - it was in the orphanages where vulnerable children were placed, it was across the board," she said. MacIsaac said victims found the church's attempts to deal with the problem inadequate. "There's been no real acknowledgement of the victims," she said. "The culture of the church seems to be more concerned with minimising scandal rather than dealing with this very serious crime." She said she was sceptical about the benefits of holding World Youth Day in Sydney, even if the Pope did issue an apology. "It just highlights the hypocrisy of the church. Here they are spending millions on World Youth Day when the sex abuse victims are paid A$25 000 on average, even though their lives have been ruined." Broken Rites says that 107 Catholic priests and religious brothers have been sentenced in Australian courts on sex charges. 'We're not proud' But it believes many more cases have gone unreported or have never made it to court because the victims have taken their complaints to the church instead of the police. The church in 1994 appointed a bishop named Geoffrey Robinson to a committee investigating sexual abuse, a position he held for nine years. Robinson, who retired as a bishop in 2004, wrote a book on the issue last year questioning basic tenets of the Catholic faith, including the need for priests to take a vow of celibacy. "Sexual abuse of minors by a significant number of priests and religious (office holders), together with the attempts by many church authorities to conceal the abuse, constitute one of the ugliest stories ever to emerge from the Catholic church," he said. Robinson said the church needed to research the reasons why priests abused minors and ask bishops worldwide to examine the extent of the problem in their countries. "Until basic steps such as these are taken, I find it impossible to believe that church authorities are determined to confront, rather than simply manage, the problem," he said. But Pell defended the Australian church's response to the issue of abusive priests within its ranks. "We're not proud," he said. "We faced up to it - I think pretty well - for quite some time now."
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