Push to Make Church Inquiry Global

By Barney Zwartz
The Age
December 18, 2012

http://www.theage.com.au/national/push-to-make-church-inquiry-global-20121217-2bjek.html

AUSTRALIA should use its seat on the United Nations Security Council to push for a UN inquiry into how the Catholic Church moves paedophile priests from First to Third World countries to avoid investigation, the state inquiry into clergy sex abuse heard on Monday.

Victims' lawyer Angela Sdrinis said she feared an epidemic of abuse in coming decades in developing countries that lacked a strong, independent police force.

''We know that the problem of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church is an international problem.'' No other religious group so often transferred abusers interstate or overseas, especially to Third World countries, she said.

''In particular in Third World countries, where the Catholic Church is dominant and where the police and justice systems are much less advanced than in Western countries, there is a substantial risk that the influence of paedophile priests will be completely unchecked,'' she said.

She said the inquiry should urge the federal government to ask the UN to set up an inquiry into how the church handled sexual abuse allegations.