PERTH, Australia -- Australia's Catholic Church on Friday commissioned a team of scientists to determine whether a weeping fiberglass Madonna hailed as a miracle by thousands of pilgrims is a fake.

Archbishop of Perth, Barry Hickey said the inquiry, which will see the 70 centimeter (28 inch) sculpture undergo a barrage of scientific tests, was unprecedented in Australia.

Scientists from two Perth universities have already tested the statue but failed to find the source of a rose-scented oil-like substance that trickles from its eyes.

The small parish church where the statue is displayed has received requests from all over the world for the oil and hickey said believers deserved to know if the statue could be explained by science or whether it was a miracle.

"The phenomenon has been going on for more than three months now," he said. "The faithful and the community at large are entitled to as clear a statement as I can make, about whether the tears can be explained by some natural process or human intervention, or whether they defy scientific explanation."

Hickey has appointed a team of three, one a non-Catholic, to find out why the Madonna has been "crying".

He has invited the scientists to conduct any tests they like, provided they do not damage the statue, and said the team will be open to suggestions from the world's scientific community.

The scientists have been asked to report back after a month.

The statue is publicly displayed every Sunday at the our Lady of Lourdes Church in Rockingham, a coastal suburb 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Perth.

It has attracted crowds of up to 3,000 pilgrims, many of them sick and crippled.

The statue belongs to local parishioner Patty Powell who bought it for 150 dollars (84 U.S.) at a religious shop in Thailand eight years ago.

She claims the statue first cried oil-like, rose-scented tears in March, and began weeping continuously in August.

Hickey has previously said he does not believe trickery is involved.