An Australian sex abuse victims group is calling for 100 others to be removed from the priesthood, in response to a story in The Age. The Melbourne Victims' Collective, a group of 27 primary and secondary alleged sex abuse victims, wants the priests stripped of their titles and privileges, according to an AAP report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The AAP report cited The Age story 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."
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.