Sydney Cardinal George Pell has said he was deeply moved by the brutality and cruelty catalogued in the 2500-page report on "endemic" mistreatment in church-run institutions in Ireland. Cardinal Pell promised to closely examine and act on any links between the country's clergy and "grim" sexual abuse allegations contained in the report, SBS reports.
"It is grim reading," Carfdinal Pell said.
"The only way forward is to acknowledge the wrongs that have been, to institute just procedures to process the complaints (and) to offer help to healing and compensation."
Pell said the Irish report would be thoroughly examined for any links to clergy or members of religious orders in Australia.
"And whatever needs to be done in the Sydney Archdiocese, and indeed more widely in Australia, will be done to bring justice to victims," he said.
Meanwhile, victims of abuse by members of the clergy here in Australia have renewed their calls for a royal commission into the matter to be set up here, ABC News says.Dr Wayne Chamley, a spokesman for the Broken Rites group, says previous Senate inquiries into the treatment of children in care do not go far enough.
"The problem with Senate inquiries is that they don't have powers of subpoena or powers to put witnesses under oath so many people won't come forward. They don't feel they have the right protections," he said.
The Australian Catholic Church says while it is ashamed at the findings from Ireland, there is no need for such a commission.
Sr Angela Ryan is with the Church's National Professional Standards Office.
"There has been a Senate inquiry. There's been a police royal commission in New South Wales," she said.
"Whatever is needed to check is needed but it's really important that people who have been abused come forward and that the matters are followed through now."
She says she is ashamed by the findings of the Irish report and admits it is possible that priests known to be sex offenders were transferred to Australia.
"It's certainly possible. If it happened and if there's been abuse in Australia, we would certainly want to deal with that," she said.
"There certainly are procedures in place now [to check]. Whether those procedures were in place 50, 60 years ago I would doubt, but they certainly are in place now."
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