The Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO) on Monday called on the Croatian Bishops Conference (HBK) to form an independent commission to investigate cases of paedophilia in the Catholic Church in Croatia, which would also include persons who are not members of church institutions.

“We consider it our moral obligation to call on the HBK to form an independent commission to investigate the deep and until now concealed problems regarding paedophilia in the Catholic Church,” the HHO said in a statement, noting that similar commissions were established in France and Spain and submitted their reports to church and secular authorities.

The HHO said that media have lately extensively reported about cases of child abuse in the Catholic Church, with Djakovo-Srijem Archbishop Djuro Hranic having recently apologised publicly to the families of the victims of sexual abuse by a priest in Sotin, after he was faced with accusations that he had been aware of the crimes for more than a year without taking any action.

Archbishop Hranic also chairs the HBK “Justitia et pax” commission, a church institution that should serve as the equivalent to secular human rights organisations and be particularly sensitive to victims, the HHO said.

“The question is whether after a gaffe as big as this one, Archbishop Hranic can continue chairing such an institution. But we leave that decision to him and the other members of the Croatian Bishops Conference,” the HHO said.