Calls for deadline on child abuse royal commission as MPs say it could take 10 years

CARDINAL George Pell says the royal commission into child sexual abuse within the church is an opportunity to "clear the air".

Cardinal Pell welcomed the inquiry but said it was important for people to remember the inquiry was wide-reaching and the Catholic Church shouldn't be a scapegoat.

"We think this is an opportunity to help the victims, it's an opportunity to clear the air and separate fact from fiction," he said.

Cardinal Pell defended the Church’s handling of complaints in a defiant press conference in Sydney, saying the church had been the subject of “general smears” in the media.

Allegations that the church had failed to deal with abusers and that it was “inefficient, covering up, that we are moving people around” were false, he said.

“It’s not the case,” Cardinal Pell said. “It’s demonstrably not the case.”

Cardinal Pell appeared hesitant when taking questions about the church’s obligations when a priest confessed to abuse in the confessional, saying that the sanctity of the confessional was “inviolate”.

He said the church had been worked hard to uncover child abuse.

"We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church. We object to it being exaggerated," Cardinal Pell said.

"We object to being described as the only cab on the rank.

"We acknowledge, with shame, the extent of the problem and I want to assure you that we have been serious in attempting to eradicate it and deal with it ...

"This commission will enable those claims to be validated or found to be a significant exaggeration."

Cardinal Pell also questioned whether ongoing "furore in the press" about the alleged abuse was helpful to the victims.

Royal commission could take 10 years

Independent senator Nick Xenophon believes a two-year deadline should be imposed on the royal commission but prominent Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon says the national inquiry could take up to 10 years to complete its task.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the commission yesterday, saying too many adults had averted their eyes to "a vile and evil thing".

The inquiry is being supported by all sides of politics and has been welcomed by the Catholic Church.

Senator Xenophon, a leading advocate for a royal commission, says the inquiry is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get it right, provided it has the appropriate resources.

"It can't drag on for nine or 10 years as the Irish commission of inquiry did," he told ABC TV.

"A two-year time frame seems appropriate."

Mr Fitzgibbon says the inquiry will be "a big and slow moving beast" that could take a decade.

"Make no mistake it will cause trauma for many individuals and organisations," he told ABC Radio.

Prime Minister announces wide-ranging royal commission into child abuse

Senator Xenophon said there was no reason why the royal commission could not deliver an interim report.

Acting Families Minister Brendan O'Connor said the government would not commit to a specific deadline, preferring to leave that to the royal commission.

"You provide them with control of their own destiny," he told ABC TV, adding it was difficult to determine an appropriate timeframe.

"We have to allow the commission to do its good work."

Mr O'Connor said the government would have the architecture of the commission determined before the end of the year.

Mr Fitzgibbon warned it would be "a long road" just to get the commission started.

"As large and as unwieldy in a way and as protracted as it will be, I still believe it is the only way to provide closure to the victims," he said.

The NSW MP paid tribute to Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, whose claims of a cover-up in the Catholic Church prompted a NSW special commission of inquiry into police investigations of child sex abuse allegations in the Hunter Valley.

"He will become a national hero if all those concerns he expressed are confirmed by the commission," Mr Fitzgibbon said.

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Det Insp Fox said he was "elated" to hear there would be a national royal commission and welcomed its breadth.

"There are so many other things that are wrong within other religious institutions and groups within this country," he told ABC Radio.

"Broad-ranging - that just means there are so many more kids out there and families it will be helping."

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Det Insp Fox said speaking out meant he "sadly" didn't have a future with the police force.

"I regret that my disengagement from them will probably come a little bit earlier than I was hoping," he said.

"But look at what we've got ... it's been worth that sacrifice."

He told Lateline last night he and his family had received threatening messages since he spoke out last week about an alleged police cover-up of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

"... it's just very sad that I've had some terrible things occur to my family and I over my stance on another matter and the church matter over the last six to 12 months, from threatening letters on police letterheads to myself," he said.

My wife suffered a complete nervous breakdown after she was sent one of those threatening letters.

Victims welcome "necessary cleansing" of evil

Peter Blenkiron, a victim of abuse at the hands of  the Christian Brothers, spoke to fellow survivors who were in tears when they heard that Julia Gillard had set up a royal commission into child sex abuse by members of the church and other organisations.

"This is massive. I've just been speaking to blokes in tears, tears of joy," Mr Blenkiron said.

"People have asked me what about the hardship it's going to create for everybody. It's a necessary short-term pain for long-term gain that brings out the truth."

Mr Blenkiron hit out at Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, who said calls for a royal commission were disproportionate.

"It's not church bashing, this is a necessary cleansing to remove pure evil from organisations that call themselves religious bodies," he said.

"What organisation would want those evil men as part of them?"

And he also savaged Cardinal Pell's claim that victims got justice when the church apologised.

Mr Blenkiron says no victim he knows believes they have ever received justice.

"Tell him to look up complex post traumatic stress disorder syndrome. That doesn't go away, that stays with you for life and most often it ends your life," he said.

"And tell him to then support a system that will keep those people alive who need the help as a result of his church that he supported and he watched. All this evil was on his watch."

Mr Blenkiron said it was was vital that a royal commission urgently address the number of victims still taking their lives, decades after being abused.

"We've got people dying today, so they need to put some sort of temporary solution in place to keep people alive. That's critical, absolutely critical."

Mr Blenkiron, who attended St Patrick's College, Ballarat, in the 1970s when hundreds of boys were abused, said it was also vital to set up a compensation scheme to help survivors pay the massive medical costs associated with their abuse.

Church to co-operate with inquiry

After Ms Gillard's announcement, Cardinal Pell said the public remained unconvinced the church had adequately dealt with sexual abuse.

"I believe the air should be cleared and the truth uncovered," he said in a statement.

"We shall co-operate fully with the royal commission."

The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference this morning welcomed the inquiry.

"We do need this activity, the inquiry, at this stage, to make quite sure the right thing is being done, to clear out for once and for all any doubt about the church," the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart told ABC radio.

"As I go around from parish to parish, I sense there is a great love for the church, a great love of priests, but a terrible scandal of the few who have offended so terribly."

Archbishop Hart said the inquiry would uphold the actions by the Catholic Church to deal with allegations of abuse.

"I certainly believe the procedures that we have used since 1996 to address matters of abuse should be subjected to appropriate scrutiny and that scrutiny has my full support," he said.

"We will co-operate fully with the royal commission."

After Ms Gillard's announcement, Cardinal Pell said the public remained unconvinced the church had adequately dealt with sexual abuse.

"I believe the air should be cleared and the truth uncovered," he said in a statement.

"We shall co-operate fully with the royal commission."

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Lawyer Vivian Waller, who has represented victims of church abuse for 25 years and has campaigned for a royal commission for close to a decade, said she had doubted this day would ever come.

"I think this is a wonderful step in the right direction," she said.

"I can express relief and elation on behalf of my clients, who for too long have thought the Catholic church has acted as a law unto itself."

Stephen Woods, who was abused by Catholic clergymen from the age of 11, hoped the commission would help on his road to recovery.

"When you're believed, it makes you feel a little bit more powerful in one way that, yes, I can overcome this, I can deal with this, this wasn't my fault," he told ABC television.

He described the abuse he suffered at the hands of the clergymen.

"He would molest you in the front of the class.

"While, say, you were reading a book ... he'd have his hands up your shorts.

"Or he'd take me into his office where he used to make me strip and he would masturbate behind his desk."

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Nicky Davis from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said her first reaction to the announcement was to hug her son and sob with joy.

"Our suffering is being recognised, our voices are being heard and this is a wonderful thing," she told ABC television.

Victims wouldn't be able to heal while the truth was covered up, Ms Davis said.

She urged the prime minister to ensure that victims' voices were heard when the commission's terms of reference were put together.

"We are the experts in how they managed to get away with this for so long," she said.

States back royal commission

The Victorian government has been conducting its own parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse of children by clergy, which Premier Ted Baillieu said had provided the opportunity for a national focus on the issue.

"It is clear that there have been a substantial number of established complaints of sexual abuse of children by those who have taken advantage of positions of authority," he said in a statement.

"This abuse is abhorrent and it has had traumatic consequences for victims and their families.

"It is important that we do whatever we can to prevent it from happening and bring those who are perpetrators of child abuse to justice."

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Executive director Tony Nicholson said it was obscene that institutions had covered up their crimes for decades.

"We welcome this announcement, but it is well overdue," Mr Nicholson said.

"It's obscene that institutions have for so long chosen to cover up crimes against the most vulnerable - our children - and have failed to report it to the police."

It was important the terms of reference, still to be announced by Ms Gillard, were comprehensive.

"Once and for all we can get these crimes into the open," Mr Nicholson said.