THIS afternoon the Catholic Bishops' Advisory Group on Child Sexual Abuse by Priests and Religious will publish its long awaited guidelines. They will have studied similar guidelines published by bishops' conferences and individual dioceses in such countries as England and Wales, the US, Canada and Australia.

The English guidelines, the first part of which were published in June, 1994, will have been particularly closely examined. These underlined the importance of the Catholic Church publicly declaring its willingness to co operate with the statutory agencies - the police and the health and social service authorities - and establishing a close working relationship with.

The "paramountcy principle" was also strongly stressed that "in any proceedings the welfare and interests of the child are the paramount considerations. Statements and accusations made by children must be taken seriously

This principle must continue to apply even after criminal proceedings have been completed and the guilty person has paid the penalty and is seeking reinstatement.

The guidelines laid down that "administrative leave" - or leave of absence - during investigation of allegations must become standard practice for priests and religious suspected of abusing children, "as a way of protecting children and establishing the truth". The Irish bishops have been doing this at least since last October.

The English and Welsh guidelines then made 25 recommendations to dioceses. They said that each diocese should appoint a special priest as the "bishop's representative" to whom all information about child abuse cases should be referred.

This priest would require "professional training, guidance and support", and would be responsible for how "actual or suspected cases" should be referred to investigating agencies such as the police and the child care authorities. Similarly, in Catholic schools a senior staff member should be appointed to liaise with social services departments and other relevant agencies.

The "bishop's representative" would be assisted by a "small crisis management team", with legal and child welfare expertise, which would be able to establish "working links with statutory agencies".

In a paragraph which is known to have been considered problematic by the Irish committee, the English guidelines said: "When Church authorities are made aware of rumours, gossip or allegations concerning a priest or a person with church related activities or responsibilities, the alleged abuser should not be approached at this stage by anyone with a view to discussing the allegation. This is to safeguard children's interests and the unimpeded course of any official investigation."

The document noted in an appendix that guidelines issued the previous year by the diocese of Portsmouth laid down that "under no circumstances should the child be interviewed, nor the alleged perpetrator be informed or interviewed".

It went on: "A rapid preliminary evaluation and clarification of the situation must be undertaken with circumspection by the bishop's representative, assisted by the crisis management team."

If there is "reasonable suspicion" of an offence, the accused person must be placed on administrative leave, after the case has been referred to the statutory authorities. During the consequent investigation "an accused person must be forced to stand aside", however strongly he or she protests innocence.

The guidelines stressed that even if there are no criminal charges, the church authorities were obliged to assess the "pastoral consequences and not allow "a person known to be a danger to young persons" to have continued access to children through holding a position in the church.

Even after a court verdict of "not guilty", but when there remains "a strong and persistent suspicion, vigilance must be maintained, particularly to monitor unusual and unsuitable behaviour patterns. Similar vigilance must be applied in the event of suspicions of false accusations".

The guidelines also laid down a series of strict rules governing the return of a convicted child abuser to priestly ministry, re emphasising that "the protection of children is the priority".

They emphasised the need for a thorough vetting of all priests, religious and church workers, including "positive, authoritative and written" references when they apply for a job. Complete and confidential information should be kept on "all persons for whom ecclesiastical superiors are directly responsible".

Two years earlier the Archdiocese of Chicago - one of North America's largest, with 2.3 million baptised Catholics - had published its policies for dealing with clerical child sex abuse. Chicago had been having problems with numerous legal actions against sex abusing priests for the previous 10 years. It was one of the US dioceses visited by members of the Irish Bishops' Committee last year.

Its new policies were notable mainly for their emphasis on practical action. The Archbishop, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, a pragmatic and highly influential prelate, said they were aimed at ensuring the safety of children and helping the church make "more informed decisions about returning priests to ministry".

They featured an independent review board - consisting of six lay persons and three priests - to be responsible for "the processing and management of all cases of priests against whom allegations are made", and for determining the fitness for ministry of such priests. Among the lay members were a survivor of child abuse, a social worker, a clinical psychologist, a psychiatrist and a lawyer, all of them women.

A 1800 type, round the clock phone number was opened to receive information of allegations. A special "victim assistance minister", backed by a team of trained specialists, was set up to move quickly to provide assistance to victims and other affected people.

The document also promised "psychological screening" of seminarians would be improved, and "unified personnel records will follow a priest from early throughout his entire career".

Cardinal Bernardin accepted clinical data which suggest that once it has been demonstrated that a priest is an abuser, he should never again return to parish ministry or any ministry which might place a child at risk".

The document made clear that the archdiocese's policies required "compliance with all civil reporting requirements related to sexual misconduct with a minor and co operation with official investigations".

The archdiocese's chief communications officer, Mr Bob Quakenbush, said yesterday that it was diocesan policy to report any allegation to the civil authorities, normally the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, "as soon as we hear of it".

"It's not our job to investigate an allegation, it's their job to investigate it. It may be true or false, but it's not our job to make that determination. That's a job for the professional people in the Department."

At the same time as informing the civil authorities, the archdiocese's own procedures, as outlined in the 1992 document, would be initiated, he said.