PRIEST SPEAKS OUT ON ABUSE

Father Aidan McGrath, who is based in Rome, said he believes more inquiries into a scandal that has rocked the Church in Ireland and throughout the world in the last 12 months will focus too much on the past instead of working to prevent the cover-ups happening again in the future.

"I believe that 90 per cent of the victims who are going to come forward have done so and anyone else who hasn't should not be forced to come forward through an inquiry," Fr McGrath told the Leader while at home for the Annual Conference of the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Banbridge man, who was appointed as Secretary General of the Order of Franciscan Missionaries in Rome last year, has worked in canon law for the past 15 years and said the clergy, not the church, are to blame for covering up abuse scandals.

"I think the situation is horribly complex," he said. "There are procedures within the church - the problem is that they weren't followed correctly."

While there have been calls from some sections of the church for an inquiry into every diocese throughout Ireland following the revelations uncovered in the Murphy report, which focused on the archdiocese of Dublin, Fr McGrath said more needs to be done to ensure repeat offences are not allowed to happen in the future.

"I think we already know there is a problem," he said. "I am not so sure that any more public inquiries will turn up anything further in what has been and is a terrible tragedy.

"The time has come to focus on the wider problem in society - that is not to say those guilty of crime should not be followed up and punished."

Fr McGrath, who appeared on the BBC's Spotlight last week to speak in his capacity as a leading church law expert, said the mood in Rome is one of utter shock.

"People in Rome are shocked at the sheer number of revelations," he said. "It has opened the eyes of people that this is a problem that needs to be addressed. But it is not simply an Irish problem, it is a church problem."

Despite the flood of criticism levelled at the Pope in recent months, Fr McGrath said he is confident the current head of the Catholic Church will deal with the problem appropriately.

"Pope Benedict is a man very aware of the problem and the need to deal with it very strongly," he said. "There is no room in religious life for people who abuse children or put them at risk of abuse."