Church structure must change: groups

11 Oct 2012, 1:07 pm   -   Source: AAP

Legal and human rights groups say religious organisations and employees must be subject to the same laws as everyone else.

Legal and human rights groups want the legal protection of the Catholic Church to be changed so it can be sued by victims of sexual abuse.

Groups including the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV), Liberty Victoria and Ryan Carlisle Thomas Lawyers say religious organisations are typically unincorporated associations that cannot be sued.

In submissions to the Victorian government's inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations, the groups say religious organisations, including the Catholic Church, are able to avoid liability through organisational and corporate structures.

"The organisational and corporate structure of most religious organisations poses a significant barrier to civil law claims," the LIV submission says.

It recommends legislative changes to remove the ability of religious organisations to rely on statutory corporations and "anachronistic" structures to avoid liability in matters such as criminal abuse.

The LIV also wants reforms to clarify when a religious organisation can be vicariously liable - as a third party deemed able to control the offender's conduct - for criminal abuse of children by employees.

Ryan Carlisle Thomas Lawyers says churches and other entities sued over sexual abuse by clergy or other staff can seek to avoid liability by arguing they cannot be held liable for the intentional or illegal actions of employees.

Liberty Victoria says there are far too many examples of laws that apply equally to all except those in religious organisations.

"With respect to crime, religious organisations and their employees should be subject to exactly the same law as secular organisations and individual citizens," it says.

"There has been a tendency amongst our various state and federal governments, in many different contexts, to treat religion and its institutional wrongdoing with undue deference and timidity.

"This tendency should be firmly discouraged."

The groups also want changes to limitation periods to encourage more victims of sexual abuse to come forward.

The Catholic Church of Victoria's Father Shane Mackinlay said the church's legal status was established by state legislation long ago and it was up to the government to decide whether that legal structure was still appropriate.

Father Mackinlay said it was unclear whether changing the structure would benefit abuse victims, as it would require them to establish legal liability and they may receive less compensation than the "fair and generous" $75,000 now offered by the church in Victoria.

"I think that it's not an obvious solution; it is something that would have to be weighed carefully," Father Mackinlay said.

"We're not opposing that. We're just saying that we don't see that that is an immediate solution to an immediate problem."

He said the church did not apply statutory limitations to victims coming forward so it had no objection to the statute of limitations being changed.

AAP ce/

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