Dominican Order priest and canon law expert Father Tom Doyle joined Hunter civic leaders yesterday in backing a royal commission, and criticising politicians for their timidity on the issue.
"In the US the grand juries are the equivalent of royal commissions and in Ireland the statutory commissions are the equivalent," Father Doyle said. "They have proven to be the best way to get at the truth."
Governments had to act because in the past 30 years the only change within the church had been the result of "media exposure, public outrage and pressure from the civil court system. What the institutional Church has done, it was forced to do."
Newcastle Trades Hall secretary Gary Kennedy and Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper said the Australian Catholic Church's failure to address systemic problems meant it was time for governments to act.
Mr Kennedy criticised the NSW Government for failing to call a royal commission, and shadow cabinet's decision this week to back a "watered-down" commission of inquiry without demanding immediate government action.
He rejected shadow cabinet's view that an inquiry should look at child sex abuse generally, rather than focus on the Catholic Church, and said many people in the Hunter had been personally affected by the child sex abuse crisis.
"We can't allow a push for a royal commission that is clearly felt in the public to be watered down to a generic inquiry into child sex abuse," Mr Kennedy said.
"This continually unfolding crisis must be horrifying to many good Catholic people. It's critical for the community that we address this issue, and the only way to do that is for a full royal commission with the focus on the Catholic Church."
Mr Piper said the government would have to act because "if they don't it's going to be a lingering, festering sore".
"The church is a very powerful institution. Only another powerful institution like government is going to get it to change," Mr Piper said.
Newcastle Lord Mayor John Tate was surprised to learn that three Newcastle City Council employees were victims of just one notorious Hunter paedophile priest who cannot be named for legal reasons.