Church Adviser Questions Value of Abuse Inquiries

By Noel Towell
Brisbane Times
April 25, 2013

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/church-adviser-questions-value-of-abuse-inquiries-20130425-2ihhn.html

The man chosen to advise the Australian Catholic Church on child sex abuse says he is ''not a fan'' of statutory inquiries into paedophilia in the church.

Ian Elliott, who has led the Irish church's internal response to the child sex scandals that shook that nation, has been hired by the Australian church to advise on its response to widespread abuse allegations.

Announcing his new job this week, Mr Elliott told an Irish newspaper that state-based inquiries into institutional abuse were long, costly and often failed to establish anything new.

During six years leading the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland - a church-run group - Mr Elliott and his staff completed audits of procedures and safeguards in 16 Irish dioceses and four religious orders, with reports due on another 10 dioceses and 100 orders by 2015.

Mr Elliott's comments on statutory inquiries came in response to the possibility of a new statutory commission on child sex abuse in the British-governed province of Ulster.

''I'm not a fan because they tend to be very costly, take a long period of time and often tell you what you already know,'' he said.

He added that much of the evidence in his most recent audit, which brought adverse findings against the diocese of Clogher, had been voluntarily supplied by church authorities.

''Why do you need a statutory inquiry for it if you can get it another way?'' Mr Elliott asked.

In Australia, two statutory inquiries are under way, with the Commonwealth government's long-awaited royal commission on institutional abuse taking submissions and the Victorian government inquiry into child sex abuse having led to several arrests.

Ireland's Ryan Commission on institutional abuse took nine years to complete and its explosive findings caused serious tension between the Irish government and the Vatican.

Australian church spokesman Father Tim Brennan confirmed on Thursday that Mr Elliott, who is a Protestant, would be working with Catholic organisations here.

''What we're doing is getting the fellow out from Ireland to come out here for conversations about how we might learn from that experience,'' Father Brennan said.

''He calls a spade a spade. What he offers for a church leader is a thorough analysis of what's what.

''Then he [the leader] is not worried that a journalist will ring him in the morning and tell him something that he doesn't know about that he should know about.''

Father Brennan said a more substantive announcement on Mr Elliott's role and any plans for an Australian Catholic sex abuse audit office was expected when the nation's bishops gather in Sydney late next week.

''There's a bishops' conference next week and that will make things a bit clearer,'' the church spokesman said.