Pope's Australia visit marred by protests

Updated 10.56 Sun Jul 13 2008

Keywords: catholic, sexual abuse, Australia, Pope Benedict

Pope Benedict is in Australia where he plans to apologise for a sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the country, but his arrival has been marred by protests.

At a military base in Sydney, the Pope was greeted by members of Australia's Catholic Church and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

"We must have better action, we must have better opportunity for the victims to be able to take their claims to the civil courts" - Chris Isaac from the sexual abuseBroken Rites

But a group of Catholic Church abuse victims and their relatives held a separate gathering in front of a main cathedral, demanding action from the Church and the government.

Chris Isaac from Broken Rites said: "We must have better action, we must have better opportunity for the victims to be able to take their claims to the civil courts."

For the first three days of his visit the Pope will rest at a Catholic retreat on the outskirts of Sydney.

Civil libertarians, also plan to protest controversial issues such as the Catholic Church's stand against the use of condoms and gay rights, also took to the streets to protest against the extra police powers they say "crush civil liberties".

New South Wales Police have been given extra anti-protest powers so they can arrest anyone annoying pilgrims or enforce a £2,600 fine.

The Pope is in Australia to attend the World Youth Day.