Poland’s agreement with the Vatican helps protect abusers

Poland’s agreement with Vatican helps protect abusers, NSS tells UN

Via National Secular Society

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The National Secular Society has urged a UN committee to push Poland to renegotiate a treaty with the Vatican, in order to better protect child abuse survivors in the Catholic Church.

In a submission to the UN committee on the rights of the child, the NSS said the concordat between Poland and the Holy See appeared to “compromise the effective administration of justice”.

The NSS added that the concordat impeded Poland’s freedom and ability to conform to the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The NSS’s submission highlighted evidence that the scale of clerical child sexual abuse in Poland is substantial and prosecutors are expected to treat the church with deference.

The submission also said the country should take steps to tackle the discrimination and persecution faced by LGBT+ children, including by introducing inclusive relationships and sex education and reforming religious education.

The committee is taking evidence on Poland’s compliance with the CRC ahead of an examination of Poland’s five-yearly report on the subject.

Concordat undermines secular justice

The concordat, which Poland and the Vatican signed in 1993, requires conformity with the Catholic Church’s canon ‘law’ in some instances and remains valid today.

The NSS’s submission said the concordat sought to give ecclesiastical ‘law’ precedence over secular law. It said the ‘justice’ delivered as a result would not be “an adequate or just substitute for even-handed secular justice” for perpetrators of child sexual abuse.

The maximum sanction under canon law for abuse of minors, including rape, is defrocking.

The NSS also referred to a 2019 letter from the national prosecutor which suggested local prosecutors seeking documentary evidence from the Catholic Church were required to treat it with deference.

The letter suggested in some cases this should include allowing the church to withhold documents.

The prosecutor’s justification for this position was partly based on the obligations outlined in the concordat.

The NSS’s submission included reports suggesting the national prosecutor’s office initially denied the existence of the letter, then sought to misrepresent its contents as benign.

It added that Poland should make greater efforts to secure secular, rather than ecclesiastical, justice for those suspected of clerical child sexual abuse.

Scale of abuse

The NSS’s submission noted that the Catholic Church has admitted that hundreds of priests in Poland have abused children.

It also noted that pressure groups have suggested significant numbers of bishops have failed to report abusive priests and allowed them to stay in ministry, often working with children in the process.

NSS comment

NSS president Keith Porteous Wood said: “Poland’s populist government is seeking to bolster the church from unprecedented criticism over clerical abuse of minors, after three films which attracted record-breaking audiences drew attention to the extent of the abuse and the church’s cover up.

“Poland’s adherence to human rights appears to be deteriorating with every month.

“We hope our submission will assist the UN to bring pressure to bear on Poland to ensure it makes the protection of LGBT children non-negotiable, and hold it to account for its shortcomings in prosecuting clerics suspected of abusing children.”

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Byrne describes Catholic Church as ‘force for evil’

Irish actor launches stinging on attack on church, calling it a corrupt and nefarious institution

Actor Gabriel Byrne says he remains unrepetentant on his views of organised religion Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Getty Images

Actor Gabriel Byrne has launched a stinging attack on the Catholic Church and described it as a “force for evil”.

The veteran Hollywood star had a strict Catholic upbringing in Dublin and spent five years in a seminary training to be a priest.

But he said it was his own unhappy memories of the seminary, where he says he was sexually abused by a priest, that made him decide not to raise his two children as Catholics.

And in an interview, the 62-year-old says he remains unrepetentant on his views of organised religion and even claimed the Catholic Church once drew inspiration from Hitler’s Nazis.

Recalling the the time he was sent away to an English seminary at just 11 to study for the priesthood, he said: “It was part of the culture. It was a very religious, oppressive society, though we didn’t see it as oppression at the time.

“I remember walking with my mother along a narrow pathway and she was holding onto a pram and two priests came along the footpath and she had to wheel the pram into the road to allow them to walk by, these mysterious men in black. I think the religion I had — and I don’t have any now — was rooted in a kind of childish fantasy.”

He continued: “The Jesuits have that expression, ‘give us a child until he is seven and he will be ours for life’. That was why the Catholic Church and the Nazi party fed off each other. “

After the rally at Nuremberg, the then pope said: “We need to be doing something similar and we have the theatre for it with St Peter’s, so that was when he started coming out on the balcony to address the crowds.

“And the Nazis meanwhile were learning from the Jesuits and making sure they got the child by seven in order to have them for life. The Hitler Youth. “De Valera signed the book of condolence when Hitler died. There was a sneaking regard among many Irish people for Germany and Hitler. England’s pain was Ireland’s gain.”

The New York-based actor, who recently triggered a storm when he described The Gathering as a “scam”, said in the interview with the Sunday Telegraph’s Seven magazine that he feels fortunate to have escaped from the clutches of the Catholic Church.

“They have way too much hold on this country. It’s a very corrupt and nefarious institution. The nuns were vicious because you have all these women living together in denial of love.

“They turned inward on themselves, became twisted creatures. I saw nuns being awfully cruel to me and to my sister. Horrific. Horrific.”

He went on: “I think if you are lucky you eventually come to a place where you are able to question these things, and I did. I read a lot on the subject and had many conversations and I have come to the conclusion that the Catholic Church is a force for evil.

“How can you enslave women? How can you deny men who are supposed to be serving you the comfort of marriage and children? How can they deny sending condoms to Africa? How can they deny women becoming priests? It’s an anti-woman and anti-love church.”

Referring to his decision not to raise his two grown-up children [he had with ex-wife, actress Ellen Barkin] as Catholics, he added: “I never discussed religion with them. As far as I’m concerned, it didn’t do me any good.

“And it’s interesting to watch two people grow up without it and find their own kindness and conscience.”

Byrne’s latest move, All Things To All Men, is out next Friday.

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Catholic Pedophile Protector Cardinal George Pell: Removed From Vatican Inner Circle

George Pell: Pope Francis removes Australian cardinal from inner circle

Restructure of Council of Cardinals comes as Pell faces prosecution in Australia for historical sexual offences

via Melissa Davey

Pope Francis (left) with Cardinal George Pell, who he has removed from the Council of Cardinals as part of a restructure. Photograph: AP

Pope Francis has removed Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, from his inner circle in a restructure of his Council of Cardinals.

Pell’s position as the financial controller of the Vatican makes him the third most powerful person in the Vatican. He is facing prosecution in Australia for historical sexual offences and has taken leave from the position. Pell has strenuously denied the allegations.

The removal of Pell, 77, from the council does not necessarily affect his treasury position, which he technically still holds, and a Vatican spokesman would not comment further.

Two other council members – the newly retired archbishop Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, 79, and Chile’s Francisco Errázuriz Ossa, 85, who has been accused of concealing abuse while archbishop of Santiago – were also removed from the group of nine on the council, which is known as C-9.

A Vatican spokesman said Francis had written to the prelates “thanking them for the work they have done over these past five years”.

A key role of C-9, formed in 2013, has been to reform the bureaucracy of the Vatican and determine its policies and missions going forward.

But Francis has been under increasing pressure to restructure C-9 in the wake of growing concerns about child sexual abuse and other scandals in the church, with many angered that men accused of serious offences were determining the future direction of the church. The fact many of C-9’s members are elderly has also been a concern.

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Rafeal Cruz: ‘Atheism Leads To Molestation’ And 4 Other Crazy Things He Said

Rafeal Cruz: ‘Atheism Leads To Molestation’ And 4 Other Crazy Things He Said

Now that Teapublican Texas Senator Ted Cruz has officially tossed his clown hat in the 2016 presidential ring, examining this man’s extraordinarily insane background and comments is going to be easier than spearfishing out of a barrel.

Enter Ted Cruz’s Christian Taliban dad, Rafael Cruz.

Rafael Cruz, Ted Cruz’s father, is slowly proving my theory that bat shit can be entered into one’s DNA. The rabidly right-wing preacher often makes extremist comments in support of his moronic right-wing fundamentalism. Relying on wacky Dominionist teachings, the batshit whisperer and father of our newly anointed 2016 republican presidential candidate, previously described his son as being the “self-anointed king of society.” It’s quite interesting how these fundamentalists are so vigorously pro-life when you consider everything they say makes pro-choice the greatest argument.

Here are 5 of the Craziest Things Said by Rafael Cruz, Ted Cruz’s Preacher Daddy:

Giving a talk at OK2A, an Oklahoma Second Amendment advocacy group (Jesus loves AR-15s), Rafael Cruz said that atheism leads to sexual abuse of children:

1. There is no moral absolute, which means we operate by situational ethics, which unfortunately is something being taught in every high school in America. This means that right and wrong is dependent upon the circumstances. Of course, without God there is no value to life. That leads to immorality, that leads to sexual abuse, and there is no hope. They live without hope, because there is nothing more.”(Raw Story)

2. We have our work cut out for us,” Cruz said “We need to send Barack Obama back to Chicago. I’d like to send him back to Kenya, back to Indonesia.” He went on to say, “We have to unmask this man. This is a man that seeks to destroy all concept of God. And I will tell you what, this is classical Marxist philosophy. Karl Marx very clearly said Marxism requires that we destroy God because government must become God.” (MySanAntonio.com)

3. Cruz lying bout Obama on abortion: “Do you realize,” he asked a room of conservatives, “the first bill President Obama signed into law was to legalize third trimester abortions?” (The first law Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, according to The New York Times.)(MySanAntonio.com)

4. “Socialism requires that government becomes your god. That’s why they have to destroy the concept of God. They have to destroy all loyalties except loyalty to the government. That’s what’s behind homosexual marriage. It’s really more about the destruction of the traditional family than about exalting homosexuality, because you need to destroy, also, loyalty to the family.” (MySanAntonio.com)

5. On anti-gay discrimination: “The left is trying to redefine the issue as a civil right, not as a personal choice. They have gone to the extent to even try to make it illegal for counselors to administer to these people that have certain sexual tendencies to try to work with them from the Christian, biblical standpoint,” Cruz said. (MySanAntonio.com)

Exorcism, The Vatican Death Cult, and Mental Health

Exorcism, The Vatican Death Cult and Mental Health

There has always been a stigma attached to mental illness and conditions such as epilepsy, which cause alarming seizures in otherwise healthy individuals. When society did not understand the cause of conditions that science has learned to identify and treat, people turned to religion to cope, and the results were at best scarring for the individual and at worst, deadly.

A young German woman that had suffered seizures all of her life was killed after ten months of exorcisms because her family believed that she was possessed by demons. Denied food and water, subjected to violent rituals, the 23 year old died horribly and needlessly at the hands of people blinded by their own ignorance.

Another epileptic in Pakistan was tortured by a witch doctor after his family asked that he be exorcised of his demons. He was attacked with iron rods and his fingernails pulled out all because he had suffered several seizures. By the time his family decided that he needed medical help, he succumbed to the injuries.

The two cases I’ve cited might easily have come from medieval texts or church records from another century, but they did not. The first case might be familiar to many, for it occurred in 1975. The victim’s name was Anneliese Michel and the movie “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” was based on her case. It was this tragedy that prompted the Roman Catholic Church to offer exorcists medical training in order to distinguish between a medical condition and a demonic possession.

The second case occurred in 2010, and the victim, Asif Qadri sparked a murder investigation, but it was too little too late for him. A father of two whose only crime was epilepsy died miserably because of religious superstition.

The sad fact is that people in the modern world are using exorcism as treatment for epilepsy, schizophrenia, and bi-polar disease. This is not happening in primitive villages in remote places. This is happening in modern Europe, Asia and North America. An east London exorcist told BBC Newsnight in 2012 that demons can “deceive doctors” into treating possession as mental illness.

See the backwards thinking here?

The Catholic Church, known for exorcisms, claims to perform the ritual only when the person in question has been cleared of any medical conditions. This is still not acceptable, because it is always a medical condition. The only evil possessing the victim of mental illness or epilepsy are those that deny a person proper medical care in order to partake in a superstitious ritual that has no place in modern society. Outside of Catholic clergy, the people performing exorcisms are being paid thousands in order to abuse a human being.

What does it say about our society when something like this is legal? Vatican approved or not, exorcism involves denying an epileptic medication that could prevent seizures. It involves terrifying a mentally ill person that may already dealing with something frightening within themselves and causing irreparable damage. It involves physical abuse, including beatings, asphyxiation, starvation and methods of torture last seen in Spanish dungeons during the Inquisition.

The moment a vulnerable person is subjected to this sort of cruelty is the moment that religious rights to mete it out should no longer apply. There is absolutely no justification for this sort of brutality. Until a better effort is made to educate people and it is made illegal, people will continue to suffer and die in the name of nonsense, and the unfair stigma attached to mental illness and other conditions people mistake for demonic possession will remain.

–Beagle

Abuse inside Christian marriages – a personal story

Abuse inside Christian marriages – a personal story

Christian congregations are not immune from domestic abuse.

• Doctrine of headship a distortion of the gospel message of mutual love and respect
• Submission is a fraught mixed message for the church

Ten years ago I was in the middle of a situation that an anti-domestic expert called “intimate partner terrorism” on Q&A this week. My then husband was supposedly a Christian, a very pious, rather obsessive one. He was a great amateur preacher, very encouraging to his friends and evangelistically inclined. He led Bible studies. He wanted to train for the ministry.

He just had one little problem. He liked psychologically torturing me. And dragging me by the hair around our apartment. And punching me – hard, whilst telling me how pathetic I was. He gave me lists with highlighted sections of Bible passages about nagging wives and how I should submit to him. I was subjected to almost the full catalogue of abusive behaviour.

He was a classic wolf in sheep’s clothing. The Bible warns us repeatedly about people like that.

Since leaving this man, I have been shocked by the devastation that domestic abuse has caused women my age, in Sydney in general and in the Anglican Church in particular. How talented, godly, intelligent women have ended up brainwashed, sometimes with severe depression and wanting to kill themselves. With some of them leaving the church.

Which is why I have been stunned at the reaction to Julia Baird’s recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald about domestic violence in the church. A theologian, Claire Smith, and minister, Karl Faase, have both written articles in response indicating that this type of situation doesn’t happen in our church, or if it does, it’s not very often. They also claim that ministers of the church do not teach or behave in a way that encourages such things. They have claimed there is no evidence, and many others have agreed with them.

Well, I disagree.

When something like this happens to you, people start telling you things. I have since that time spoken to women who tell you that they couldn’t understand how it happened, how they just thought they had to put up with it and how they thought it was their fault.

And they thought that due to what they had been taught in church and reinforced by their spouse, that it was their duty to stay. In an Anglican diocese that specialises in telling men and women how to relate to each other “according to the Bible”, nothing they heard from the pulpit told them anything different. Sometimes it is the statements that are not made that scream the loudest. Often inappropriate statements had been made to them by their pastors, sometimes including counselling them to prayerfully “stick it out” in the midst of severe abuse.

In the end, it wasn’t a helpful minister or a kind friend that first convinced me that I should try to leave my abusive situation. They had no clue of what was going on as I didn’t think I was allowed to tell them. I wouldn’t even have named my situation as domestic violence at that time, so I didn’t think to call the DV hotline.  It was a copy of Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. I was saved by a lending card to a public library.

My husband controlled much of my media intake, but he never realised that 19th century British fiction contained such subversive material, so he let me read it. His downfall was that he reminded me too much of the evil “rake” in the first novel and the psychopathic villain in the second. And despite the brainwashing, I thought that if Anne Bronte (who was a daughter of an Anglican clergyman) could write a novel in Victorian England where the heroine could leave an evil man like that, what was I doing staying with one 150 years later?

So what would I say to those who would minimise the extent of domestic violence occurring within church families and the inadequacy of the churches’ response to the problem?

You are wrong. Very wrong. You do not know what you are talking about.

You wanted statistics? Well, I have been unable to find a study that has been conducted on the prevalence of domestic violence in Australian churches. This not evidence that such a problem does not exist, it is just evidence that we are too apathetic to record such things and how difficult it is to get people to speak of them. However, a 2006 Anglican Church publication indicated that in Britain:

• Domestic abuse affects one in five   adults over their lifetime (one in four  women and one in seven  men).
• The incidence of domestic abuse within Methodist church congregations is similar to the rate within the general population and the rate within the British Anglican church is unlikely to be any different.
• Domestic abuse occurs among all types of households and all professions, including clergy.
• One in three suicide attempts is by a victim of domestic abuse.
• 45 per cent of female homicide victims were killed by their present or former partner.
• 750,000 British children a year witnessed domestic abuse (in a population of 60.5 million) and 33 per cent of these had seen their mother beaten severely.
• Domestic abuse is a much better description of the problem than domestic violence as it includes physical violence, emotional, psychological and spiritual abuse.
• Churches have traditionally found all sorts of ways not to “own” the problem of domestic abuse.
• The theology of self-denial and suffering has been misused by the church to encourage victims to tough it out in abusive situations. Particularly, “the example of Christ’s sacrificial self-giving has been used … to encourage compliant and passive responses by women suffering in abusive relationships”.

Some Australian statistics:

• 23 per cent of women who had ever been married or in a de-facto relationship, experienced violence by a partner at some time during the relationship.
• 82 per cent of domestic violence cases are not reported to the police
• Of women who were in a current relationship, 10 per cent had experienced violence from their current partner over their lifetime, and 3 per cent over the past 12 months.
• Thirteen women have died from domestic violence in Australia in the first 7 weeks of 2015.

As for demanding further evidence, names, dates and details – is it really the responsibility of traumatised women and men to write to the Sydney Morning Herald and detail the abuse that has occurred to them and name the ministers who they believe have hindered their recovery or whose preaching or counsel has encouraged them to stay longer than is right?

Most DV survivors do not want to become Googleable due to a highly personal traumatic circumstance.

I have not used my real name in this article based on legal advice, even though I wanted to. I wanted to because I know that I am in a stronger position and have been better supported than many of the women I have come across, and this is such an important issue to take a stand on.

It angers me that certain people have demanded evidence without realising how that reinforces the trauma and invalidates the experience of victims. If you haven’t pushed for an investigation or at least a survey within your own denomination, is it reasonable to criticise a journalist for asking questions, just because she seems to have a decent sense of smell? If the British church can admit they have a problem, then why can’t we? Because we may need to take a hard look at ourselves? Seems a bit whiffy to me.

I think we should all be glad that Julia wrote her original article, regardless of our theological position.  A defensive rebuttal of her article is of no use me or to any of the damaged women I know. They need help and validation. They need well-trained ministers who are equipped to help deal with the problem.

But if what I read online this week in the Christian community is representative, many people in the church still have “a see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil” attitude. Nothing much will improve until every denomination in Australia has a strategy to deal with domestic abuse that is informed by experts and rigorously implemented in each local church.

Swallow your pride and get to it, people. If you care enough to bother.

Isabella (not her real name) is currently writing a book detailing anonymised case studies of domestic abuse occurring within church families. Contact her at:  storyforisabella@gmail.com

If you are in an abusive situation:

• Contact the free DV hotline on 1800 656 463 (TTY 1800 671 442).
• Walk into your local police station.
• If you have been assaulted, call 000 immediately.

U.N. Report: Vatican Policies Allowed Priests To Rape Children

U.N. Report: Vatican Policies Allowed Priests To Rape Children

 

By Alexander Smith

 Alessandra Tarantino / AP

Pope Francis meets bishops at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Wednesday.

The United Nations heavily criticized the Vatican on Wednesday for what it said was a systematic adoption of policies allowing priests to rape and sexually abuse tens of thousands of children.

The devastating report published by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of a Child said the Vatican must “immediately remove” all known or suspected child abusers within the clergy.

It said the Holy See had “systematically placed preservation of the reputation of the church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims.”

In response, the Vatican said in a statement published on its website that some points made in the report were an “attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching.”

The Vatican said it would examine the report thoroughly and reiterated its commitment to defending and protecting child rights in accordance with the U.N. guidelines and “the moral and religious values offered by Catholic doctrine.”

The U.N.’s conclusions come after an unprecedented hearing in Geneva on Jan. 16 in which Vatican representatives were questioned by the U.N. committee.

Its recommendations are non-binding and the U.N. has given the Vatican until 2017 to report back. It criticized the institution for submitting its last report 14 years late.

“Well-known child sexual abusers have been transferred from parish to parish or to other countries in an attempt to cover-up such crimes,” the report said.

It later added: “Due to a code of silence imposed on all members of the clergy under penalty of excommunication, cases of child sexual abuse have hardly ever been reported to the law enforcement authorities in the countries where such crimes occurred.”

The U.N. report also denounced the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Spain Charges 10 Priests in Country’s Largest Known Pedophilia Case

Spain Charges 10 Priests in Country’s Largest Known Pedophilia Case

Agence France-Presse

Pope Francis (AFP Photo / Filippo Monteforte)

Spain’s Catholic Church, which has long been accused of silencing cases of priests sexually abusing children, is starting to take a hard line against offenders, spurred by Pope Francis.

A judge in the southern city of Granada on Tuesday charged 10 priests and two Catholic lay workers with sexually abusing altar boys in their care, or being complicit in such acts, from 2004 to 2007.

It is the biggest and most serious paedophilia case involving members of the Catholic Church known so far in Spain.

The case was brought to light by a former altar boy, now 25 and a member of the Catholic institution Opus Dei, who wrote to the pontiff to say he had been molested.

Pope Francis called the unidentified man to offer the Church’s apology and in November the pontiff said he had ordered a church investigation into the case, saying it had caused him “great pain”.

The young man who wrote to the pope “never imagined the issue would take on the significance that it did,” his lawyer, Jorge Aguilera Gonzalez, told AFP.

“If it wasn’t for the pope’s intervention, it would still have been an important issue, but just one of many.”

Pope Francis has taken a tough stance on clerical child abuse since taking over in 2013 from Benedict XVI, calling it “the shame of the Church”.

The Catholic Church had huge influence in Spain during Francisco Franco’s 1939-75 dictatorship and for decades victims kept quiet about abuse “due to social pressure, the power of the Church”, said Jose Manuel Vidal, head of religious news website Religion Digital.

That explains why, unlike in Germany, Ireland, Mexico or the United States, until now no major cases of paedophilia involving priests have come to light in Spain even though abuse took place.

Nine percent of all sexual abuse suffered by boys between 1950 and 1970 was carried out by priests, according to a 1994 study by University of Salamanca psychology of sexuality professor Felix Lopez for the Ministry of Social Affairs.

The abuse often took place in boarding schools, as depicted in Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s 2004 film “Bad Education”.

– Social change –

Spain has become an increasingly secular society since the country returned to democracy after Franco’s death in 1975.

Of Spain’s 33 million who declare they are Catholics, 61 percent say they are non-practising, according to a November survey by the state Sociological Research Centre (CIS).

“Now some bishops have changed, they have turned towards Pope Francis’s new era,” said Vidal.

“Others are lagging behind what the pope is asking for, which is total transparency and that paedophilia be considered by bishops themselves not just as a sin, as it has been up until now, but also as a crime,” he added.

While priests accused of abuse have often remained in their posts, the Archbishop of Granada, Francisco Javier Martinez, removed several priests linked to the case from their duties as soon as the scandal broke.

Still some voices, even within the church, called for Martinez himself to step down.

“Given that every day the opinion grows that he acted to cover up the alleged paedophiles, we think he should be removed,” Catholic group Comunidades Cristianas Populares de Andalucia said in a statement.

The archdiocese of Granada denied any cover-up and the priests accused over the alleged sexual abuse say they are innocent, according to their lawyer.

After the scandal broke in Granada, other victims of abuse have come forward with complaints and bishops have responded with a tough stance.

At the end of November, a 45-year-old man alleged he was abused in 1982 at a seminary in Tarragona in northeastern Spain when he was 11 years old.

After living with the secret his entire life, the man said he was encouraged to come forward by the paedophile case in Granada.

The Archbishop of Tarragona immediately launched an investigation, informed the Vatican and encouraged all victims to file criminal complaints.

The following month the diocese of Tui-Vigo in northwestern Spain abolished a religious order after its founder was accused of sexual abuse and detained by police.

“Things are changing,” said Juan Pedro Oliver, the president of children’s rights association Prodeni.

“But it is because of the attitude of the pope. I think if it was up to the Spanish Church hierarchy this would not be the case.”

Pope Francis names US priest who hid reports of abuse to be Vatican prosecutor of sex crimes

Pope Francis names US priest who hid reports of abuse to be Vatican prosecutor of sex crimes

Tom Boggioni

Rev. Robert J. Geisinger (left) with Pope (Vatican Radio)

An American Jesuit appointed by Pope Francis to oversee the prosecution of priests accused of sexually abusing minors  allowed a Chicago priest to remain in the ministry for years after learning of his  history of sexual abuse towards young teenage men, reports The Boston Globe.

The Rev. Robert J. Geisinger, selected by the Pope in September to be the Vatican’s “promoter of justice,’’  was the second-in-command among  Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s when allegations of sexual abuse complaints were levied against the Rev. Donald J. McGuire.

McGuire was  convicted in 2006 by a Wisconsin jury of molesting two boys who reported him to civil authorities. He was also convicted on federal charges in 2008 and is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

In September 2013, Jesuit officials in Chicago paid $19.6 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by six men who claim they were molested by a former priest.

According to court documents, the Jesuits failed to notify police or take effective steps to prevent McGuire from molesting minors.

Church records produced during lawsuits filed by McGuire’s victims, show that Geisinger had extensive knowledge of the complaints made against McGuire as early as 1995 and advised officials in Chicago on how to discipline McGuire as late as August 2002.

Despite complaints, McGuire continued to befriend and travel with young teenagers,  often sharing rooms with them on trips.

In a memo written by Rev. Richard H. McGurn to Geisinger in 2002, McGurn mentioned six complaints against McGuire and asked for Geisinger’s counsel in taking disciplinary measures that stopped short of dismissing McGuire.

Responding to the memo, Geisinger advised restricting McGuire’s ministry to the Chicago Archdiocese and detailed  the steps necessary to remove him, if need be, but did not suggest reporting McGuire’s conduct to law enforcement.

Geisinger also made clear he was aware of the accusations against McGuire, noting that he wrote a Feb. 17, 1995, letter to McGuire outlining complaints against him — including one from the mother of an alleged victim who “most vehemently requests that you have no further contact with her son.”

“It’s astonishing that, for such a high-profile, sensitive position, the Vatican wouldn’t want someone whose background is unassailable, in the sense that there shouldn’t even be questions raised,” said Philip F. Lawler, the editor of Catholic World News, who has been  a forceful critic of the church’s neglect in handling the sex abuse crisis.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, director of the press office, defended  Geisinger in a statement, saying the Jesuit had “voiced concerns regarding McGuire’s conduct” while working with the Chicago Jesuits.

Lombardi credited Geisinger with presenting the case for McGuire’s expulsion from the priesthood in 2008, noting that the- Pope Benedict acted on Geisinger’s request in less than two months.

Outrage Over US Catholic Sex Abuse Cover-up

Outrage over US Catholic sex abuse cover-up

        Photo:       Cardinal Roger Mahony featured prominently in the published documents. (Reuters)

Victims of child sex abuse by Catholic clerics in the US have voiced anger after newly released records showed church leaders discussing how to cover up priests’ alleged crimes in California in the 1980s.

Prosecutors said they wanted to study the previously confidential records, including memos by then Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony – although experts said the statute of limitations would likely prevent any legal action.

Excerpts from the documents were published by the Los Angeles Times, including exchanges between the now retired Cardinal Mahony and a top aide talking about how to conceal paedophile priests from law enforcement.

The records include secret memos between Cardinal Mahony and Monsignor Thomas Curry – his top aide on sexual abuse cases – about how to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to the church that they had abused young boys.

Specifically, Monsignor Curry suggested stopping suspected priests from seeing therapists who might alert authorities about alleged abuse, or keeping them outside of California to avoid police investigations, the Times reported.

One such was Monsignor Peter Garcia, who admitted abusing children in mostly Spanish-speaking parishes for decades. He was sent to a New Mexico treatment centre, and Cardinal Mahony ordered that he stay outside California.

“I believe that if Monsignor Garcia were to reappear here within the archdiocese, we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors,” Cardinal Mahony wrote in July 1986.

“There are numerous – maybe 20 – adolescents or young adults that Peter was involved with in a first-degree felony manner,” Monsignor Curry wrote in May 1987.

Joelle Casteix of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said “we were shocked and disgusted to see these documents”.

“[Cardinal Mahony] and other high-ranking [LA clergy]… worked diligently to ensure that men who hurt children, who abused children and who destroyed communities were never going to see a day behind bars,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the LA District Attorney’s office said prosecutors “will review and evaluate all documents as they become available to us” in remarks reported by the Times.

But former DA Steve Cooley, who led a five-year probe into Catholic sex abuse, said a three-year statute of limitations meant that there was little prospect of successful prosecutions.

AFP

Related articles

• Retired cardinal stripped of duties as child abuse files are released (guardian.co.uk)
• LA Archbishop Relieves Retired Cardinal Mahony Of Duties, Releases Abuse Files (npr.org)
• Cardinal Roger Mahony, victims speak out on clergy abuse (abclocal.go.com)
• Newly Released Letters Expose Decades Of Shocking Cover-Ups Of Child-Molesting Catholic Priests (addictinginfo.org)
• Cardinal Mahony rebuked as more ‘brutal’ priest abuse files released (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• Cardinal Mahony says he wasn’t equipped to handle priest abuse (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• Outrage over US Catholic sex abuse cover-up (abc.net.au)

Priests and Other Catholic Sadists | “Black-collar crime” — List of names

“Black-collar crime” — List of names
Here are some Catholic priests and religious brothers in Australian cases, researched by Broken Rites

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Main Page Contact Us Our top stories Black Collar Crime Current court cases What’s new Donations		This page of Catholic cases was compiled by Broken Rites Australia researchers and was last updated on 24 Janauary 2013. Broken Rites Australia helps victims of church-related sex abuse to obtain justice. Our complete database of Broken Rites cases is NOT available on the internet. On this web page, we give merely a few examples of Broken Rites cases. This webpage is divided into sections: A: Criminal court cases B: Out-of-court civil cases C: Currently before the criminal courts D: Church people failed to help the police E: Court cases ending with no conviction F: Lay teachers in church schools If a particular offender is not listed on this webpage, this does not mean that this person is not an offender. Many church-abuse victims remain silent for years or forever. Only a few victims have consulted the police; some victims eventually contact Broken Rites; and some victims (often unwisely) merely tip-off the church’s internal Professional Standards Office (also called “Towards Healing”), whose main purpose is to protect the church and the perpetrator. It is a wise move to contact Broken Rites first, for advice about options for obtaining justice. Section A: Criminal prosecutions, researched by Broken Rites Here are some examples of criminal prosecutions, researched by Broken Rites Australia (since 1993), involving Catholic priests and religious brothers. Broken Rites Australia gives support to victims, either before or after the prosecutions. The actual court proceedings are handled by specialist police from sex-crime investigation squads. This list is confined to Broken Rites cases. Fr Michael Aulsebrook In the Melbourne County Court on 22 August 2011, Father Michael Scott Aulsebrook (a member of the Catholic religious order Salesians of Don Bosco) was sentenced to two years’ jail (with 15 months suspended, serving nine months behind bars) for indecent assaults of a boy, aged 12, at Salesian College “Rupertswood” (a boarding school) in Sunbury, Victoria, in 1983. This boy was not Aulsebrook’s only victim. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Wilfred Baker After action by Broken Rites, Father Wilfred James Baker (also known as Father Bill Baker or Fr Billy Baker), Melbourne archdiocese, was sentenced to 4 years jail (eligible for parole after 2 years) for offences against boys. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Charlie Barnett Charles Alfred Barnett, who ministered for the Vincentian order in Catholic parishes around Australia for 20 years until the mid-1990s, was sentenced in South Australia in August 2010 to at least four years for sexual offences against boys in that state. He is also facing complaints in other Australian states. See more from Broken Rites here. Father Roger Michael Bellemore This Marist priest was sentenced in Tasmania in 2006 to five years’ jail (with parole after 3 years) for offences against schoolboys. After he had spent nine months in jail, the appeal court granted him a re-trial. In February 2008, another jury found Bellemore guilty and he was sentenced to four years’ jail.  See the Broken Rites story here. Br Robert Best Christian Brother Robert Charles Best (also known as Brother Bob Best) was convicted in Melbourne in 1996 for sexual offences committed against one of his schoolboy victims. On 8 August 2011, after being convicted again for multiple offences (including buggery) against some more of his victims, he was sentenced (at the age of 70) to 14 years and nine months (eligible for parole after serving 11 years and three months). See the Broken Rites story here. Warren Booth     Warren Douglas Booth was training to become a priest when he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy in the showers at a public pool in Campbelltown in Sydney’s south-west. Booth was sentenced in 1996 to 12 months jail. Fr Tom Brennan, Newcastle, NSW In August 2012, police charged Father Thomas Brennan (of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese) with 10 counts of sexually assaulting a young male while Brennan was the parish priest (in the early 1980s) at Waratah, in Newcastle, north of Sydney. He was also charged with having failed to report the sex-crimes (in the 1970s) of another priest who was under Brennan’s supervision. Brennan was ordered to appear in court on 25 September 2012 on all these charges but he failed to appear and he died five days later. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Desmond Brown Father Desmond Joseph Brown, Redemptorist order, Victoria and NSW,  non-custodial sentence, for indecent assault of a female. Fr Rex Brown Father Paul Rex Brown (once a senior priest in the Lismore Catholic diocese in New South Wales) was convicted in Queensland in 1996 for possessing child pornography. Police could have charged Brown with serious child sexual-assault offences but he chose to plead guilty to the lesser charge of child pornography. See the Broken Rites full story here. Fr Neil Byrne In Brisbane on 7 March 2012, the Very Rev Dr Neil Joseph Byrne was sentenced to nine months in jail (suspended for two years) after he pleaded guilty to possessing and making child-exploitation material. As a lecturer in a seminary, Byrne has been involved in the training of Australian Catholic priests. See more from Broken Rites here. Gerard Vincent Byrnes Gerard Byrnes (born in 1948) originally trained as a Christian Brother before becoming a lay teacher in Catholic schools in Queensland and New South Wales. On 4 October 2010, he was jailed for 8-10 years after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting girls at a Catholic primary school in Toowoomba, Queensland. He was the school’s designated “child protection officer”. See more from Broken Rites here. Brian Cairns, former Christian Brother Brian Dennis Cairns taught primary students (as Brother Cairns) at Catholic schools in Brisbane until 1974. Then, after becoming a lay teacher, he taught at other Brisbane Catholic schools (as Mister Cairns) until 1984. In 1985, he was jailed for seven years for committing serious sexual offences against schoolboys over several years. Brian Dennis Cairns’s name has sometimes been mis-printed as “Brian David Cairns”. See more from Broken Rites here. Br Greg Carter, Marist Brother Gregory James Carter (born 4 July 1957) was sentenced in Queensland in 1997 to 18 months jail (with release after six months served) after pleading guilty to multiple charges of indecent treatment of a 15-year-old boy who was a boarder at St Augustine’s Marist Brothers’ College in Cairns, north Queensland. See our story here. Fr Richard Cattell Father Richard St John Cattell, of the Parramatta diocese, NSW, was sentenced in 1994 to 3 years jail (2 years minimum), after pleading guilty to five counts of indecently assaulting a boy. The boy had gone to Cattell to complain about having been molested by a teacher. Cattell, who was the vicar-general of the diocese, was the administrator whose role it was to receive  complaints about sexual abuse in the diocese. See more about Cattell in a Broken Rites story about the Parramatta diocese here. Fr Peter Chalk This priest (a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart religious order) ministered in Melbourne in the 1970s (around Croydon, Park Orchards and Warrandyte). Melbourne police later accumulated evidence which could enable them to prosecute Father Peter Gerard Chalk for sexually abusing children (as young as 12) in Melbourne. But Chalk’s religious superiors allowed him to stay out of Australia (and out of reach of the Australian police), working in Japan, where he changed his surname to a Japanese one. In 2010, Chalk suddenly died (in Japan), thus closing the Melbourne police file. See more here. Br Bob Chambers, Queensland The Brisbane Courier Mail has reported that in the Brisbane District Court on 10 October 2002, Christian Brother Robert George Chambers (then aged 60) pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm on a boy, aged 12, in 1968 while Chambers was teaching at  St Joseph’s Christian Brothers College in Rockhampton, central Queensland. Brother Chambers, who was standing at a window in the Brothers’ residence, fired an air rifle at the boy in the school yard, hitting him twice in the back of his legs as the boy drank from a water fountain. Judge Julie Dick placed Chambers on a $100, six-month good-behaviour bond. The prosecutor said that the Crown had elected not to proceed with another charge against Chambers. In the 1980s, Brother Chambers taught at Ignatius Park College in Townsville. Br David Christian Marist Brother David Austin Christian (born 3 December 1942), formerly principal of Marist Brothers’ Newman College, Perth, Western Australia, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated indecent assault against two boys (aged 10 and 11) in the principal’s office. When charged in 1994, Br Christian had been teaching at Port Hedland, W.A. In 1995, Christian was fined $10,500 ($1,500 per incident) but the Marist Order said it would pay the fine for him. Brother Christian moved to live with the Marist Brothers in Templestowe, Melbourne. According to Marist websites (accessed in 2011), Brother David Christian continued to be accepted by his superiors and colleagues as a member of the Marist order. Christian Brothers, Goulburn NSW. In the Goulburn Local Court in southern New South Wales in 1989, a Christian Brother was convicted (and was given a suspended jail sentence) for sexually abusing a boy at St Patrick’s College, Goulburn (this school later became Trinity College, Goulburn). Other victims of this Brother did not contact the police but they later demanded (and obtained) an apology from the Christian Brothers Order. Despite his offences. this Brother continued to be accepted as a member of the Christian Brothers (in an office position). See more here. Fr Bob Claffey Father Robert Claffey, Ballarat diocese, Victoria, was given a non-custodial  sentence after pleading guilty to offences involving boys. See our story here. Fr Patrick Cleary Father Patrick Joseph Cleary, Brisbane archdiocese, 5-15 months jail for offences against boys.  See our story here. Fr Bryan Coffey Father Bryan Desmond Coffey, Ballarat diocese, Victoria, was sentenced to 3 years jail (suspended) for offences against children, mostly boys. See our story here. Gregory Coffin (alias Coffey) Gregory Vincent Coffey (birth-name Coffin) was originally a priesthood trainee in the Salesian order. Brother Greg Coffin taught at Salesian College (“Rupertswood”), Sunbury, Victoria, in 1969-1970, and at St Mark’s College, Port Pirie, South Australia, in 1971. In February 1972, he was sentenced to 12 months jail (suspended) for sexual abuse of a boy at the Port Pirie school. Despite this, he was still accepted as a lay teacher (Mr “Coffey”) in Catholic schools. Coffey was sentenced to a 2-year good behaviour bond in Victoria in 1994, plus 30 months jail (suspended) in Victoria in 1997 for offences against boys at Redden College, Preston, Melbourne, in the 1970s.  See our story here. Fr Peter Colley Father Peter James Colley, of the Ballarat diocese in Victoria, pleaded guilty in the Moonee Ponds Magistrates Court, Melbourne, on 11 March 1993 to two charges — one indecent assault of an adult male in a public toilet at Moonee Ponds and one charge of escaping from legal custody. Court records gave Colley’s occupation as “priest”, living in at an address in Morriss Road, Warrnambool West, which is the address of the St Pius X Catholic presbytery. Colley was sentenced to a 12-months good behaviour bond. Peter Colley was born in Melbourne on 12 April 1948 and went to school at Parade Christian Brothers College, Melbourne. Originally he worked as a layman with the Pallottine religious order, including (he has said) among Aboriginals at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. In the early 1970s he was living at Pallotti College, Millgrove, Victoria, seeking to be accepted as a Pallotine lay Brother  but did not complete the training. Also in the 1970s, he is believed to have spent time at a Redemptorist seminary in Galong, south-western New South Wales. During the 1970s, Colley applied to Bishop Ronald Mulkearns of Ballarat to sponsor him as a Ballarat candidate for the priesthood. Thus, Colley was ordained at St Paul’s Seminary for Late Vocations in Sydney in 1979 and then joined the Ballarat diocese, where his parishes included Terang, Horsham, Bungaree (near Ballarat) and Warrnambool East. In early 2000, when his court appearance was becoming known, Colley left the Ballarat diocese and his name then disappeared from the annual Australian Catholic Directory. Fr Peter L. Comensoli In 1994, Father Peter Lewis Comensoli (then aged 55, of the Wollongong diocese, south of Sydney) was sentenced to a minimum of 18 months jail after pleading guilty to indecent assaulting altar boys. Comensoli’s abuse was reported to the Wollongong diocese in 1989 but the church authorities allowed him to continue ministering. Finally, two victims got him convicted. Despite this, Comensoli was not laicized or defrocked. As late as 2008, Father Peter L. Comensoli was still listed as a “supplementary priest” of the Wollongong diocese “on leave” or “retired”. See more from Broken Rites here. This Father Comensoli is not to be confused with another clergyman, Auxiliary Bishop Peter A. Comensoli. Fr Doug Conlan Father Douglas Conlan began ministering in Western Australia’s Bunbury diocese in the 1970s. In 1999, aged 52, he was sentenced to 3 years jail (suspended) after pleading guilty to offences of gross indecency committed (in 1976) against a 16-year-old male. The court was told that the boy’s family trusted the priest who took the boy on a trip for services in country parishes. The offences occurred during an overnight stay in church accommodation. Fr Paul Connolly Father Paul Anthony Connolly, Hobart archdiocese, was sentenced in 2001 to eight months jail (suspended after serving four months) for multiple indecent assaults of a girl aged about 14. After the jailing, the Hobart archdiocese continued to list Connolly as a “supplementary” priest of the archdiocese. See our story here. Fr Kevin Nicholas Cox A Sydney jury convicted  this priest of sexual crimes against a girl aged 11 to 13. Church leaders and priests then submitted “good-character” references for Cox, asking the court for a lenient sentence. A judge imposed a part-time jail sentence but church lawyers appealed to a higher court against the conviction and won the appeal on technical grounds. Privately, a church leader later apologised to the girl’s family for what Cox had done to her. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Neville Creen Father Neville Joseph Creen molested young girls while he served as a priest at Mount Isa, north-west Queensland (in the Townsville diocese), from 1973 to 1981. In Brisbane District Court in 2003 and 2004, Creen admitted to  indecently dealing with 20 girls under the age of 13. One girl was aged just five when Creen abused her at a youth camp and later at the home of her grandparents. Creen was sentenced to three-and-half years’ jail (suspended after 14 months). Judge Ian Wylie said Creen had used his position as a priest and his standing in the community to intimidate the girls into remaining silent about their ordeals. See our story here. Fr David Daniel In July 2000, Melbourne Catholic priest Father David Daniel was sentenced to six years’ jail, with parole after 4.5 years, for offences against four boys, a girl and an adult male. This priest’s last parish was St Brigid’s, Healesville. See our story here. Chris D’Astoli, former priesthood trainee Press and radio and TV news reports in May 1994 stated that a former trainee Catholic priest, Christopher D’Astoli, appeared in Oakleigh Magistrates Court (Melbourne) on 25 May 1994. D’Astoli (aged 50 in 1994) pleaded guilty to gross indecency and indecent assault against a 13-year-old Catholic school boy in the Oakleigh area in 1969-70, when D’Astoli was completing six years as a trainee priest at the Melbourne Catholic seminary (Corpus Christi College in Glen Waverley). The court was told that the boy reported the assault to his school and D’Astoli left the seminary a few days before he was due to be ordained. However, the court was told, the boy’s school (Salesian College, Oakleigh) persuaded the boy not to tell his parents or the police, and the police did not learn about the matter until 23 years later. Magistrate Susan Blashki placed D’Astoli on a three-year good-behaviour bond, and ordered him to pay $750 into the court fund. The information for this case was prepared by Sergeant Brendan Harper of Oakleigh Criminal Investigation Branch. Father Albert Davis This Catholic priest (a member of the Dominican Fathers, the Order of Preachers) was charged in 2006 with 17 incidents of indecent assault involving seven boys at Blackfriars Priory School (conducted by the Dominican Fathers) in Prospect, Adelaide, between 1956 and 1960. A magistrate ruled that there was enough evidence for a jury to convict Davis. The magistrate committed him to stand trial in the Adelaide District Court. But Davis died in Canberra in March 2007 before the trial could be held. See our story here. Monsignor John Day, Victoria A detective gathered enough evidence to prosecute Monsignor John Day, who sexually abused many boys and girls in the Mildura parish in north-western Victoria. Influential church people blocked the prosecution. In 1997, after Broken Rites exposed the cover-up, the church authorities reluctantly admitted Day’s offences and apologised to his victims. See the Broken Rites story here. Father Adelrick D’Cruz This priest, aged 78, was convicted in the Victorian County Court at Shepparton on 22 May 2008 after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting a teenage girl in a north-eastern Victoria parish 24 years previously. D’Cruz had ministered in the Sandhurst diocese in northern Victoria and later did freelance ministry in the Anglo-Indian community in Melbourne. See our story here. Fr Ray Deal Father Raymond Deal, Melbourne archdiocese, was sentenced to four months jail (suspended) for an offence against a male who was under his supervision. See our story here. Fr John Denham On 2 July 2010 Father John Sidney Denham, of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese, was sentenced to a 19 years and 10 months in jail (with parole possible after 13 years and 10 months) for offences (including buggery) committed against boys in the 1970s and 1980s. See a comprehensive background article from Broken Rites here and the judge’s sentencing remarks here and another family’s complaint here. Fr Francis Derriman Francis Edward Derriman was sentenced in Brisbane in 1998 to 12 months jail (suspended after serving four months) after being found guilty of indecently dealing with a teenage girl while Father Derriman was a priest in Brisbane in 1968. The court was told that Derriman left the priesthood in 1970, became a social worker and moved interstate. In the 1990s, the victim went to the church’s “Towards Healing” program in Brisbane, expecting some “healing”, but she later told Broken Rites that church officials at “Towards Healing” in Brisbane were evasive and dismissive towards her. Br Gerard Dick In 1995, Christian Brother Gerard William Dick (then aged 67) was sentenced to three and a half years jail in  Perth, Western Australia, after pleading guilty to ten incidents of indecently dealing with boys aged eight to ten at a Christian Brothers orphanage, Castledare, in W.A. in the 1960s. Dick was just one of many Christian Brothers who abused boys in W.A. orphanages but most of the others were never brought to justice. Br Edward Dowlan Christian Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan (known as Ted Dowlan), Victoria, 1996, was jailed in 1996 with an eventual sentence (after appeal) of 6.5 yrs jail (with parole after 4 yrs) for offences against boys. See our story here. Br “David” Down Christian Brother Graeme James Down (known in the Christian Brothers as “Brother David Down”) indecently touched boys aged 10-12 from St Mark’s College in Bedford, Western Australia, in the 1980s; he left the Christian Brothers in 1999; was convicted in 2007 (pleaded guilty); received a 30-months jail sentence, with parole after one year. Later in 2007, Broken Rites received further complaints about Brother Down at the same school in the 1980s. This resulted in Down being given additional jail time in 2008. See our story here. Fr Reginald Durham Father Reginald Basil Durham, Rockhampton diocese, Queensland, 4-18  mths jail (for indecent assault of a girl at Neerkol orphanage). See our story here. Br John Dyson Marist Brother John Desmond Dyson (born 21 March 1950), who taught at Assumption College, Kilmore, Victoria, was sentenced to 12 months jail after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting three boys, aged 12 to 14. The sentence was served in community work. See our story here. Fr Anthony Eames Father Anthony Eames, Melbourne archdiocese, was sentenced to six months jail (suspended) for offences against girls. See our story here. Fr Michael Endicott On 25 June 2010 in Brisbane, Father Michael Ambrose Endicott was given a one-year jail sentence (suspended) after pleading guilty to indecent treatment of a schoolboy. See more from Broken Rites here. Br Rex Elmer Christian Brother Rex Ignatius Elmer, Victoria, was sentenced in 1998 to five years jail (with parole after 3 years 4 months) after pleading guilty to indecent assault of 12 boys at St Vincent’s Boys’ Home in South Melbourne. See the full Broken Rites story  here. Br Michael Evans, New South Wales By December 1994, New South Wales police had gathered sufficient evidence to charge Christian Brother Michael Evans with multiple sexual crimes against Catholic schoolboys. But Evans committed suicide, thereby evading the justice process. His victims included pupils at Edmund Rice College (Wollongong) and St Patrick’s College (Strathfield, Sydney). The Christian Brothers Order has apologised to Evans’s victims. Fr Paul Evans, Boys’ Town, NSW On 3 October 2008 Father Paul Raymond Evans (born 20 October 1951) was sentenced to 15 years’ jail (with parole possible after nine and a half years) after a Sydney jury found him guilty of multiple sex offences against boys in the 1970s and 1980s, while he was a dormitory master at Boys’ Town (a Catholic institution for troubled teenagers) in Engadine, south of Sydney. After 1988, Evans worked in parishes in the Broken Bay diocese in Sydney’s north. See our story here. Br Stephen Farrell, Christian Brother Brother Stephen Francis Farrell (a member of the Victoria-Tasmania province of the Christian Brothers) was a teacher at St Alipius Catholic primary school in Ballarat East, Victoria, in 1973-74 but later left the order. In the Ballarat Magistrates Court on 17 January 1997, Farrell (then aged 45) pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecently assaulting two boys at St Alipius. He was sentenced to two years’ jail, suspended for two years. After leaving the Christian Brothers, Farrell married three times. Jesuit Father Michael McGirr, who conducted Farrell’s third wedding, gave character evidence in court for Farrell. This Stephen Farrell is not to be confused with a Marist Brother of the same name. Fr Nazzareno Fasciale, Melbourne Victoria Police charged Father Nazzareno Fasciale (pronounced “Fah-SHAH-Lay”) with numerous indecent assaults of boys and girls. Fasciale admitted these crimes in a police interview which was to be tabled in court. He was absent from his first scheduled court appearance and died before the second scheduled court date. The Melbourne Catholic archdiocese has since apologised to Fasciale’s victims. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Gregory Ferguson Father Gregory Laurence Ferguson, of the Marist Fathers, was sentenced on 15 May 2007 to two years jail (eligible for parole after 12 months), for offences in 1971 against two boys aged 13 at Marist College, Burnie, Tasmania.  On 13 December 2007, he was sentenced to an additional three years’ jail for offences against a third boy, making a total of five years’ jail (but he can apply for parole after two and half years). See our story here. Fr James Fletcher Father James Patrick Fletcher, Maitland-Newcastle diocese, NSW, 7.5 years to 10  years jail for sexual penetration of an altar boy. Fletcher died in jail.  See our story here. Br Michael Folli In the New South Wales District Court, after lengthy proceedings (including an appeal by the accused), Marist Brother Michael Anthony Folli (born 4 January 1945) has been sentenced to four and a half years’ jail for sexual offences against two boys during four years from 1980 to 1983 when the boys were aged 12 to 15. The prosecution said the two siblings met Brother Folli through their Marist Brothers school at Auburn, in Sydney’s west.  Folli befriended the family and became a frequent visitor to their house, where the alleged incidents occurred. Br Raymond Foster Marist Brother Raymond Sidney Foster (born 26 November 1931) was originally called “Brother Celestine“. He taught at Catholic schools in Queensland and New South Wales.  In 1999, police interviewed Foster (then aged 67) at a Marist Brothers retirement home in Mittagong, NSW) and charged him with indecent assaults against boys, committed at Chanel College, Gladstone, Queensland, in the 1970s. On 23 March 1999 he was found, hanged, just hours before he was due to appear in a New South Wales court to be extradited to Queensland. Fr Rob Fuller Father Robert Macgregor Fuller, 54, a priest of the Sydney Catholic archdiocese, was jailed in February 2010 for seeking to procure a child under the age of 16 via internet chat sites. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Des Gannon Father Desmond Laurence Gannon, Melbourne archdiocese, was jailed in 1995 for 12 months, plus suspended sentences in 1997, 2000 and 2003, and was sentenced in 2009 to another 14 months behind bars, for offences against boys. See the full story from Broken Rites here. Br Terry Gilsenan, In 2001, Marist Brother Terence Joseph Gilsenan (born 18 October 1955) was sentenced to three years jail (with parole after 21 months) after pleading guilty to one incident of homosexual intercourse and three incidents of gross indecency, committed against a 12-year-old boarder, from a country area, at St Gregory’s College, Campbelltown, New South Wales. The offences occurred in 1987-89 when Gilsenan, then in his early thirties, was the assistant boarding supervisor, a trainee brother and a teacher at the college. Gilsenan is still a Marist Brother. He should not be confused with a Christian Brother who has a similar (but not identical) name. Brother J.G. Gladwin In 1998, Queensland detectives were ready to prosecute Gladwin for committing sexual crimes against schoolboys while he worked (as Christian Brother Gerard Gladwin) in Queensland in the 1960s and ’70s. But, before court proceedings could begin,  Gladwin (aged 65) was found dead, gassed in his car, near Brisbane. He left a suicide note. Thus, he avoided the justice process. Brother Gerard Gladwin’s schools included: a school in Gympie between 1957 and 1962; St Mary’s College, Toowoomba in the 1960s; St Joseph’s Nudgee College, Brisbane, in 1970-71; and St Columban’s College, Brisbane, in the mid 1970s.  See more from Broken Rites  here. Fr Michael Glennon Father Michael Charles Glennon, Melbourne archdiocese, was jailed in 1978, again  in 1991 and 2003, serving a total of 10.5 years minimum to 14.5 years  maximum for multiple offences (including rape and indecent assault), mostly against boys. He committed many of his crimes while on bail awaiting trial for other sex offences. See our story here. Paul Goldsmith Former trainee priest Paul Ronald Goldsmith, Tasmania, was jailed for six and a half years (with parole possible after four years) for  offences against 20 boys, aged 13 to 16.  See our story here. Fr Terence Goodall Father Terence Norman Goodall, Sydney archdiocese, pleaded guilty to indecent assault of a Catholic layman and was placed in custody until the rising of the court. See our story here. Br Brian Gordon Marist Brother Brian Robert Gordon (born 15 December 1942) sexually abused boys while teaching at a Marist Brothers primary school in Dundas, Sydney, in 1969-71. The Marists kept quiet about Gordon’s behaviour and he eventually became the Brisbane diocese’s deputy directory of Catholic Education. In 1998 he was sentenced to a minimum of  12 months jail for eight sexual offences committed in 1969-71 against four boys, aged about 11, at the Sydney school.  See our story here. Br Thomas Grealy Brother Thomas William Grealy, alias Brother “Augustine”, of the  Patrician Brothers order, was sentenced in 1997 to seven years jail (parole after four years) after pleading guilty to repeated indecent assaults of two young boys while he was the principal of the primary section of a Patrician Brothers school in Grimwood Street, Granville, in western Sydney, in the 1970s. Before molesting a boy in his office, Brother Augustine would cover a statue of the Virgin Mary with a raincoat to hide his shame. See more from Broken Rites here. Monsignor Philip Green Monsignor Philip Richard Green, Hobart archdiocese, was sentenced to three months jail (suspended) after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting a young man who was mourning the death of a sibling. See our story here. Fr Jack Gubbels On 18 August 1995, Victorian detectives went to Queensland to arrest Father Jack William Gubbels for sexual crimes crimes against Melbourne boys. But, expecting the arrest, Gubbels was found dead in bed. Thus he avoided the justice process. Gubbels had worked as a priest in the Melbourne and Townsville (Queensland) dioceses. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Barry Gwillim Father John Barry Gwillim, Melbourne archdiocese, was sentenced to 32 months jail (suspended) after pleading guilty to offences against a boy. See our story here. Fr John Haines In the Victorian County Court on 4 November 2008, Father Edmund John Haines (of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, based in the Geelong district) was sentenced to four years and three months jail (with a non-parole period of two years six months) after he pleaded guilty to six counts of an indecent act with a boy under 16, procurement of a minor for child pornography and possessing child pornography. Haines was previously a priest in Papua New Guinea. See our story here. Br “Malcolm” Hall Marist Brother Philip Stanley Hall (born 12 November 1925, alias Brother Malcolm) worked in Catholic schools in Mount Gambier (Sth Aust.), Parkes and Forbes (NSW) and Warragul (Victoria). In 1998, police arrested him (and gave him a summons to appear in court) for sexual crimes against boys and girls in Victoria. But he died just before the scheduled court date, so the court case had to be cancelled. See more from Broken Rites here. Bede Hampton, Queensland, ex-Marist Brother In December 2010 a former Catholic Marist teaching brother, now living in Australia — Bede Hampton, aged 62 — was sentenced in New Zealand’s High Court to jail for two years and six months for indecent assaults committed against boys in a New Zealand Catholic boarding school (St Joseph’s College in Masterton) in the early 1970s. Hampton left the Marist Brothers when he was 29. He has become an interior decorator based in Queensland. One of his victims now also lives in Australia. See more from Broken Rites here. Phillip Hardy, trainee priest In 1990, Phillip John Hardy began training for the Catholic priesthood with the Divine Word Missionaries at Box Hill in Melbourne but he did not reach ordination. In Sydney District Court in 1995, aged 41, he was sentenced to 11 years’ jail (with a minimum of seven years before parole) for sexual offences committed against a boy during an eight-year period, in 1978-1986, when the boy was aged from 8 to 16. During the time of the offences, Hardy was teaching at Marist Brothers College, Eastwood, Sydney, where he was in charge of “religious studies”. Br Francis Hesford Marist Brother Hesford (born 1 February 1914), formerly of Assumption College, Kilmore, Victoria (later moved to  Western Australia), was given a non-custodial sentence in 1997 after pleading guilty to offences against two girls at Kilmore. The offences were committed in 1970, when Hesford was aged 56. See our story here and another story here. Fr Ted Hewitt Father Edward Patrick Hewitt, of the Perth diocese, Western Australia, pleaded guilty in a Perth court on 2 April 1996 to a charge of wilful exposure. The prosecution alleged that Hewitt (then aged 50) had stood naked in the back yard of his home, exposing himself to children as they walked past, through an adjoining park, on their way to school. At the sentencing, in May 1996, the court fined Fr Edward Hewitt $1,000. Br Bill Hocking 0n 31 October 1992 Christian Brother William Hocking was sentenced to 150 hours of community service  after being convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy at a Catholic Church youth refuge, “Eddy’s Place”, in Wollongong, New South Wales. Ronald Hopkins Ronald William Hopkins originally trained to be a Christian Brother but ended up as a lay teacher in Catholic schools. In 2005, Hopkins pleaded guilty to offences (five counts of unlawful sexual intercourse by a teacher, five of indecent assault and one of gross indecency) against  five schoolboys, aged 12 to 16, between 1975 and 1991 while he was a teacher at two Adelaide schools — St Bernadette’s in a suburb called St Mary’s and Blackfriars Priory School at Prospect. In the S.A. Supreme Court in 2006, Hopkins (then aged 70) was sentenced to ten years’ jail. See our story here. Fr Dan Hourigan, Victoria On 18 September 1995, Victoria Police charged Father Daniel Dominic Hourigan, (of the Sale diocese) with sexual crimes against boys. Three days later, he died unexpectedly, thereby avoiding a court appearance. Thus the court case had to be cancelled. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr John Houston, visiting New South Wales A Catholic priest, John Charles Houston (born 3 March 1955), has appeared in a court near Newcastle in New South Wales, accused of filming boys showering during a surf lifesaving carnival. The magistrate ordered that Houston be supervised by mental health workers, continue to take his medication and not loiter near public pools or beaches. See more here. Fr Kevin Howarth Father Kevin Howarth, Sandhurst diocese in north-eastern Victoria, sexually abused young girls and was sentenced to three months jail. The sentence was to be served in community work. See our story here. Fr Bill Irwin William Stanley Irwin was originally a Brother (and then a priest) in the Catholic Vincentian order. A Sydney court heard how the church authorities protected Irwin, concealing his criminal behaviour in a church file marked “Strictly Confidential”. In 2011 a jury found Irwin guilty of two incidents of gross indecency against a youth whom he was “counselling”. The judge imposed two six-months jail sentences, which were suspended upon Irwin undertaking a six-months good-behaviour bond. See more here. Br Fabian Jordan Christian Brother John Joseph Jordan (alias Brother “Fabian” Jordan, born 23 October 1927), worked at St Augustine’s boys home and St Vincent’s boys’ home in Victoria; he later left the Christian Brothers and retired to South Australia. In 1999 he was sentenced to a 12-months good behaviour bond for indecent assault (i.e, touching) of a 13-year-old boy at St Augustine’s in the early 1960s. This was not the only complaint about Jordan. Fr John Keane, western Victoria The Adelaide Advertiser reported on 6 January 1990 (page 2) from Melbourne: “A Catholic priest pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday to offensive behaviour in a public toilet. John Keane, 52, who gave his address as St Michael’s Church, Wycheproof, was given a 12-month good behaviour bond. The prosecutor said plainclothes police saw Keane expose himself on April 13 last year.” Frank Keating De La Salle Brother Frank Terrence Keating (alias Brother “Ibar” Keating) was sentenced to 8 to 36 months jail in Victoria in 1998, plus 12 months jail (suspended) in Queensland in 2000, all for multiple indecent assaults of boys in Catholic schools. Keating also taught in Western Australia and South Australia. See our story here. Fr Terrence Keliher Father Terrence Thomas Keliher, aged 62, was sentenced in Brisbane in 2000 to 30 months jail (eligible for parole after 8 months) for indecently dealing with a girl, aged about 11. Keliher was friendly with the girls’ parents, who were intellectually impaired, and he had officiated at the parents’ wedding. In 1999 the victim phoned Broken Rites, which put her in contact with the Queensland Police child-protection unit. Fr Vincent Kiss Father Vincent Keiran Kiss belonged to the Wagga Wagga diocese (NSW) but also worked and played in other areas, including Melbourne and the Philippines. In Sydney in 2002, then aged 70, he  was sentenced to ten and a half years in jail (eligible for parole after seven years) for sex crimes against four teenage boys.  He pleaded guilty to three charges of buggery and ten of indecent assault. See our story here. Fr Frank Klep Father Frank Gerard Klep, of the Salesian order, Victoria, 5 years 10 months jail, with parole after 3 years 6 months (after an appeal by the prosecution on behalf of the victims, April 2006, replacing previous sentence in 2005 of 1-3 yrs jail); also had a 9-months jail sentence in 1994, which he served in community work.  See our story here. Marist Brother Kostka In the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court on 23 June 2008, Marist Brother John William Chute (born 13 June 1932), whose religious name is “Brother Kostka” (in honour of a 16th Century saint), was jailed after pleading guilty to sexually molesting four students when they were aged 13 and 14 at Canberra’s Marist College in the 1980s. See our story here. Michael Lannen, ex-trainee priest Michael William Lannen spent two years in the 1980s as a trainee priest at the Catholic seminary in Banyo, Brisbane. He later became a senior psychologist for Queensland’s prison system. In 1996, aged 49, he was sentenced to four years jail after being found guilty of corruptly intimidating prisoners into engaging in oral sex with him in return for favourable reports regarding the prisoners’ future. The prosecution said that Lannen held considerable power over the prisoners, regarding their early release or whether they were given leave of absence or home detention or were accepted into work-release schemes. Lannen’s conviction relates to a period after he ceased being a trainee priest but the conviction is being included in this list, as a matter of public record, for the information of anybody who encountered Lannen in a church-related situation. Fr Leo Leunig, Father Leo St Clair Leunig, then aged 66, of the Perth diocese, Western Australia, was sentenced to six years jail in 1994 after pleading guilty to 46 offences against three young boys between 1965 and 1969; and he was sentenced in 1995 to another 12 months jail for offences against another boy. The offences included indecent touching, oral sex and sodomy. The church authorities had known since 1979 about Leunig’s criminal behaviour, but they retained him in the ministry and merely moved him from a one-parish appointment to a multi-parish role as a relieving priest. This meant that he had access to boys in the new parishes where he would be relieving. While he was relieving, Leunig lived for many years at the South Perth presbytery, which is adjacent to a primary school, but the church authorities did not warn the school’s principal or parents about him. While Leunig was serving his jail sentence (and also after he was released), the Perth diocese defiantly continued to list him for years in the annual Australian Catholic Directories as a “supplementary” (relieving) priest of the Perth diocese. Fr Bruce Little In the Southport District Court (Queensland) on 2 February 1996, Father Bruce Francis Little (then aged 50) was fined $750 after pleading guilty to engaging in an indecent act in a public place. Little admitted to having oral sex performed on him by a man in a public toilet block at Pizzey Park, Miami, on the Queensland Gold Coast. The court was told that police arrested Little one afternoon as they patrolled the park, a popular playground for children. (Case reported in the Brisbane Courier Mail, the Gold Coast Bulletin and the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, 3 February 1996.) Little, who was then a priest of the Brisbane archdiocese, later transferred to the Rockhampton diocese. Br “Nestor” Littler Marist Brother John Aloysius Littler (alias Brother “Nestor”, born 17 June 1926) worked at St Vincent’s boys’ home, Westmead, in  Sydney’s west, from 1955 to 1964. In Sydney District Court in 1993, Littler pleaded guilty to three charges of indecently assaulting a boy, aged 15, at St Vincent’s in 1962. Judge Phelan sentenced Littler to a $500 five-year good behaviour bond. Judge Phelan said he was taking into account that, as a Marist Brother, Littler had a “high standing” in the community. In 1997, Littler (then aged 71) was committed for trial on 29 counts of sexual assault (including buggery) of five other boys at St Vincent’s in the 1950s and ’60s but he eventually managed to get the trial cancelled on health grounds. Brother “Nestor” is also believed to have taught at the Marist Brothers’ St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, Sydney, in 1965-70. The name “Nestor”, which was the religious alias adopted by Littler when he joined the Marist Brothers, was the name of an ancient “saint”. Br Ray Logan De La Salle Brother Raymond Logan (alias Brother Pius Bernard), NSW,  W.A. and Victoria, was sentenced in 2000 to three years jail (to be served as periodic weekend detention) for offences against boys. See our story here. Kevin Lynch Kevin John Lynch was originally a Christian Brother, teaching in Catholic schools in Queensland. One of these schools is believed to have been St Brendan’s College, Yeppoon. After leaving the Christian Brothers, he worked as a school counsellor at Brisbane Boys’ Grammar School (Anglican) in the 1980s and at St Paul’s School (Anglican), Bald Hills, Brisbane, in the early 1990s. In 1997, police charged him with committing sexual crimes against boys while working as a counsellor. During prosecution, he committed suicide, thereby failing to clear his name. Fr Daniel Lyne, CP In 2002, New South Wales police were about to prosecute Father Daniel Lyne in court for sexual offences against young males but suddenly he died and the court case could not proceed. Lyne (born 1937) was a Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Passion religious order (the Passionist Fathers). Originally, Father Lyne had taught in a Passionist “juniorate” at St Ives, Sydney (this was a secondary school for boys who were “aspiring” to become priests in the Passionist order). He later worked in Africa and India. See more from Broken Rites here. Br Edward Mamo, MSC religious order A Catholic former religious Brother, Edward Mamo (born in 1944), has pleaded guilty to having committed multiple sexual offences against boys at Monivae College, a Catholic secondary school, at Hamilton, Victoria, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mamo also worked at Chevalier College (Bowral, NSW) and in accommodating Vietnamese refugees in Sydney. See more from Broken Rites here. Br William Marchant Christian Brother William Edwin Marchant, Tardun Boys’ Home, Western  Australia, non-custodial sentence. Fr Denis McAlinden This Irish-born priest belonged to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales, where he molested girls and women. This diocese then lent him to other dioceses around Australia (and in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea), keeping him out of the reach of the police as he committed to commit offences. Police accumulated evidence to prosecute McAlinden in court but when they finally caught up with him in 2005, he was in a church-run aged-care centre in Western Australia, where he died one month later. Since then, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese has been paying compensation to some of McAlinden’s victims. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Michael McArdle, Father Michael Joseph McArdle, of the Rockhampton diocese in Queensland, was sentenced in 2003 to six years jail (with parole possible after two years) after pleading guilty to 62 incidents of indecent dealings against 14 boys and two girls between 1965 and 1987. McArdle told a journalist that the church was aware of his offences but it never alerted police or parishioners. Fr Charles McCann A young woman made a sworn statement to Victoria Police in 1993 that Fr Charles McCann, of St Kevin’s parish, Templestowe, in Melbourne’s north-east, had invasively mauled her breasts while she was asleep in bed in her family home when she was a teenager in 1983. McCann, who was a friend of the girl’s family, was making a “home visit”. Police interviewed McCann in 1993 and, as a result, of this interview, they gave him a summons to appear in court in March 1994 to answer a charge of indecent assault. However, the girl’s parents and grandparents feared that the case would embarrass the church, so they pressured the young woman to withdraw the charge, threatening to disinherit her if she proceeded. Feeling defeated, the young woman withdrew the charge two days before the court hearing. The church authorities then felt justified in retaining McCann in the priesthood until he retired nine years later, in 2003. Br Bernard McGrath St John of God Brother Bernard Kevin McGrath was jailed in New Zealand in 1993, was jailed in Sydney in 1997, and was in jail again in New Zealand from 2006 to 2008. Any Australian victims of McGrath should have a chat with the Lake Macquarie detectives office in New South Wales, telephone 02-49429909. See the Broken Rites story about McGrath and the St John of God Brothers here. Fr Ron McKeirnan Father Ronald McKeirnan, of the Brisbane archdiocese, was sentenced to three years jail (one year minimum) in 1998, plus 3 yrs jail (suspended) in 2003, for offences against boys. See our story here. Fr Paul McLachlan Father Paul McLachlan, of the Brisbane archdiocese, was sentenced to 3 yrs 8 months jail in 2000, plus 18 months jail in 2001, for offences against boys. McLachlan was formerly the head of Brisbane’s Catholic Media Office for 19 years and appeared on television religious programs. See our story here. Br Gerard McNamara Marist Brother Gerard Joseph McNamara (born 9 March 1938) was sentenced in Melbourne to three years jail (suspended) after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting six boys. McNamara, who taught mainly in Victoria, was originally known as “Brother Camillus” (not to be confused with another Marist Brother “Camillus” in Sydney). See the Broken Rites report here. Br “Ossie” McNamara Marist Brother Hugh Michael McNamara (born 7 March 1933) taught at St Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill in Sydney as Brother “Oswald” McNamara until about 1978. He ceased being a Brother and then taught as a lay teacher at the Marist Brothers college at Ashgrove in Brisbane, where he  was jailed in 1995 for indecently dealing with a boy. In Sydney in 1999, he was convicted of physical assault of a boy at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill in 1970; and a charge of indecently assaulting the same boy was dismissed because of lack of witnesses. Rick McPhillamy, cathedral acolyte In 2011, Richard John McPhillamy (who has been an acolyte at the Bathurst Catholic Cathedral and who is a former assistant dormitory master at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst) was sentenced to a minimum of 12 months jail after he was found guilty of sexual crimes against two boys while he was working as an assistant housemaster at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst in the mid-1980s. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Terence Merivale Father Terence Michael Merivale was a priest in the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese but left the priesthood. Later, in 2000, he was sentenced to six months jail after pleading guilty to seven charges of indecent assault (including one of digital penetration) on three young  girls when he was ministering in St Bernard’s parish, Belmont, Geelong, between 1969 and 1975. Fr Murray Moffat In August 2010, Father Murray Alexander Moffat, of Brisbane, was sentenced to 18 months jail, with the first three months to be spent behind bars and the remainder suspended for three years. He pleaded guilty to indecent treatment of a 12-year-old girl between 1977 and 1981. See the Broken Rites story here. Br Rodger Moloney This member of the St John of God Brothers has worked in Australia and New Zealand. In August 2008 in New Zealand, Rodger William Moloney, 73, was jailed for sexually abusing educationally-disadvantaged boys in Christchurch, N.Z., in the 1970s. He was released from jail in September 2009. The court was told that, after completing his sentence, he would be deported to Australia.  Any Australian victims of Moloney should have a chat with the police sexual offences units in Australia. See our Moloney story here. And see our background story about the St John of God Brothers in Australia here. Br Terry Mulligan Marist Brother Terence Mulligan was sentenced in Sydney in 2000 to 6 months periodic detention for indecent assaults against two boys. Mulligan met the two siblings through their Marist Brothers school at Auburn, in Sydney’s west. He assaulted the boys in the family’s house. One of the victims, “Ricky” (aged 32 in 2000), said outside the court that the sexual abuse devastated his personal development. His life became a blur of drugs, alcohol and rage. Ricky’s wife said the effect of the abuse was being felt by her and the whole family. Fr Gerard Mulvale Father Gerard Joseph Mulvale, born 17 July 1948, from Western Australia, jailed 18-36 mths in Melbourne 1995 while he was a priest in the Pallottine order.  See our story here. Br Lawrence Murphy Christian Brother Lawrence Denis Murphy worked in Catholic boys’ orphanages at Tardun, Castledare and Clontarf in Western Australia in the 1940s and ’50s. In May 1997, he was arrested in Adelaide and extradited to Western Australia on charges of unlawful carnal knowledge and indecent dealing at the orphanages. In 1998 a West Australian magistrate ruled that there was indeed sufficient evidence for a jury to convict Murphy (then aged 80) but Murphy died before the the trial could be held. Monsignor James Murray In June 2000, Monsignor James William Murray, Geelong, Victoria (Melbourne archdiocese), was convicted and fined $500 after pleading guilty to having indecently assaulted a 25-year-old woman who had requested his pastoral care. See our story here. Fr “Max” Murray After Father Magnus William Murray committed child-sex offences in New Zealand, he was transferred to Sydney, where he was allowed to minister in the Woollahra parish in 1972-76. His past was concealed from Sydney parishioners. He later returned to New Zealand, where he was sentenced in 2003 to five years jail after pleading guilty to ten representative charges of committing indecent assaults and indecent acts on four boys in New Zealand between 1962 and 1972. The Sydney archdiocese now denies that it breached its duty of care in allowing Murray to minister in Australia because (it claims) Murray was New Zealand’s responsibility, not Sydney’s. Br Ross Murrin On 10 March 2008, Marist Brother Ross Francis Murrin (born 10 June 1955) was sentenced to 39 months’ jail, with a non-parole period of 18 months, after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting Catholic primary school boys in the 1970s. In February 2010, he received additional jail time after pleading guilty to sexually abusing another boy at a later school. See our story here. Brother Robert John N***** This former De La Salle Brother, received a ten-year jail sentence in NSW in February 2002 (when aged 55), eligible for parole after 6 yrs (the judge granted the offender a name-suppression order). See our story here. Fr Ross O’Brien In Glen Innes Local Court in New South Wales in May 1993, Father Thomas Ross O’Brien (then aged 57) was charged with indecent assault of a hitch-hiker, whom he had picked up between Lismore and Casino on 22 October 1992. Magistrate Chris Bone found the offence proved and placed Father O’Brien on a $100 good-behaviour bond for 18 months. (Reported in the Glen Innes Examiner  28 May 1993 and mentioned again in the Sydney Sunday Sun-Herald 19 March 2000.) Father O’Brien belongs to the Armidale diocese. When in court in 1993, he was ministering at the Glen Innes parish. He was later located at the Armidale Cathedral and then in the Quirindi parish. In several editions of the annual Australian Catholic Directory (e.g., the editions from 1997 to 2004), he was listed as the contact person for the “Continuing Education of Clergy” in the Armidale diocese — that is, he has been involved in the training of priests. Br Damien O’Dempsey In Brisbane in 1994, Christian Brother Damien John O’Dempsey (then aged 46) was sentenced to 18 months’ jail (with parole after four months) after pleading guilty to six counts of indecently dealing with a 15-year-old boy at St Mary’s Christian Brothers College, Toowoomba, Queensland, in 1987. In 1998, O’Dempsey was summoned to a magistrates’ court again, facing 22 charges (indecent dealing and carnal knowledge) involving another boy at a Townsville school in 1981-84. The magistrate ordered O’Dempsey to stand trial, which was listed for 1999. However, a tragedy occurred in the family of the alleged victim and the trial was abandoned. See the Broken Rites report here. Fr Kevin O’Donnell Father John Kevin O’Donnell, Melbourne archdiocese, was sentenced to 15 months jail for offences against children, mainly boys. Broken Rites helped O’Donnell’s victims to obtain justice. See our story here. Fr John O’Regan This priest ministered with the Catholic order of Oblate Fathers, in Queensland and Western Australia and possibly elsewhere. In September 1998, Queensland detectives began investigating O’Regan regarding indecent assaults of girls at Nazareth House girls’ home, Wynnum North, Brisbane, in the 1950s and ’60s. But O’Regan died during this prosecution process. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Paul Pavlou On 29 June 2009, Melbourne diocesan priest Father Paul Pavlou (then aged 50) pleaded guilty to committing an indecent act with a 14-year-old boy and another charge of possessing child pornography. He was given an 18-months jail sentence (suspended) plus a two year community-based sentence (to be served by doing community work). See the full Broken Rites report here. Pending. Matter appealed – further investigation. Fr Dave Perrett Father David Perrett, who was a “chaplain” to Aborigines in the Armidale diocese in northern New South Wales, pleaded guilty in Orange District Court to indecent assault of two young Aboriginal boys at the Walgett parish and another Aboriginal boy at the Guyra parish. On 1 November 1996, Judge Shillington sentenced Perrett, then aged 59, to a three-year good-behaviour bond.  The Catholic directories continued to list Perrett as a priest of the Armidale diocese (“on leave”) until his name was removed in 2001. Another complaint against Perrett was aired on ABC-TV’s “Four Corners” on 11 November 2002. The program featured a statutory declaration by a young Aboriginal named Edward, who said he was raped by Perrett at Walgett; however, this complaint never reached a court. Edward, who had an intellectual disability and was partially deaf, had a traumatic adolescence. He ended up in jail, where he committed suicide. Fr Kevin Phillips In Sydney on 21 April 2011, Fr Kevin Francis Phillips (of Mackay in the Rockhampton diocese in Queensland) was jailed after pleading guilty to offences against a boy at St Stanislaus College (a boys’ boarding school) in Bathurst, New South Wales, in 1990. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Ron Pickering For years, Father Ronald Dennis Pickering was protected by the Melbourne Catholic hierarchy. In late 1993 he suddenly fled from Australia to England, fearing that one of his victims would talk to police. The police eventually obtained enough evidence for a prosecution but were discouraged by the problem of locating Pickering in England (although the Melbourne archdiocese secretly knew his England address) and also the problem of extraditing him to Australia for the court proceedings. The Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese, which had long known about Pickering’s liking for boys, admitted that Pickering was an offender and it made civil settlements with some of his victims, so as to limit the church’s financial liability. See the full Broken Rites article here. Fr Terry Pidoto On 17 September 2007, Father Terrence Pidoto, of the Melbourne archdiocese, was sentenced to seven years and three months’ jail (with a minimum of five years before becoming eligible for parole) on charges of buggery and indecent assault against boys. See our story here. Priest #1, Adelaide In Adelaide in 1989, Catholic Church authorities tried to conceal a priest’s court case. In Holden Hill Magistrates Court, Adelaide, on 21 July 1989, this diocesan priest and another man were found guilty of indecent behaviour and were each fined $100. Late on a summer’s night, police had found the pair lying under bushes near Walkerville oval, engaging in sexual activity. The priest also was originally charged with giving a false name and address. Church lawyers persuaded the court to prohibit the media from publishing the priest’s name but media lawyers contested this application. The Supreme Court lifted the suppression order and the case was reported fully, with names, in the Adelaide “Advertiser” and “Sunday Mail” during July 26-30, 1989. Archbishop Leonard Faulkner wrote in a letter to all priests on 7 June 1989: “In reflecting my decision that [this priest] continue his ministry at [his parish], I remembered my own shortcomings and those of a number of our brother priests.” The priest is still in charge of an Adelaide parish. Priest #2, Adelaide and northern Sydney This priest was a mature-age entrant to the priesthood. He was recruited by (and was trained for) the Adelaide diocese, where he worked in parishes in the 1970s and ’80s. While visiting Cairns, Queensland, he was caught wilfully exposing himself on a beach. In a Cairns court on 27 July 1987, he pleaded guilty and was fined $100. After this, the church authorities transferred him to the Broken Bay diocese, in the northern suburbs and outskirts of Sydney, where he was put in charge of parishes, including parish schools. In February 1995, the Cairns court case was revealed in the “Manly Daily”, Sydney (circulating in the Broken Bay diocese), in an article headed “Shock of priest’s past: Parents stunned at exposure case”. The priest verified this report. Fr “Joseph” Pritchard Father Peter Harold Pritchard (alias Fr “Joseph” Pritchard), of the St Gerard  Majella religious order in the Parramatta diocese, NSW, was sentenced in 1997 to 6 years jail (four years minimum) after pleading guilty to charges of buggery, intent to commit buggery, and indecent assault involving seven trainee Brothers and another young male, all aged 16 to 21, over a 19-year period. See our story here. Fr David Rapson Father David Edwin Rapson (born 30 July 1953), who was then a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco, was sentenced in 1992 to two years jail after pleading guilty to five incidents of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy at Salesian College, “Rupertswood”, in Sunbury (in Melbourne’s north-west), where Rapson was a vice-principal. In a newspaper report in 1992, Rapson’s name was given (apparently wrongly) as David Edward Rapson. See more here. Fr Michael Reis, MSC religious order Father Michael Francis Reis (known as Mick Reis), who has taught at Monivae College in Victoria and Downlands College in Queensland, was sentenced in Brisbane on 6 November 2008 to 18 months jail (with a minimum of six months) for offences against two young girls in the 1980s and 1990s. See our story here. Fr Gerry Ridsdale Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale, Ballarat diocese, Victoria, has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a total of 40 children (comprising 39 boys and one girl). He is serving a jail sentence of 19 years (minimum), with parole possible in the year 2013. See our story here. Br Gregory Riley Christian Brother Francis Riley (known as Brother Greg Riley), New South Wales, was sentenced in 1999 to three years jail after pleading guilty to 17 counts of indecent assault against boys. Fr Stephen Robinson In 1998, Father Stephen Joseph Robinson (then aged 51), who was then a Catholic priest in the St Gerard Majella order in the Parramatta  diocese, NSW, was sentenced to a minimum of 18 months’ jail for acts of indecency on two trainee Brothers.  See our story here. Fr Victor Rubeo Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo, Melbourne archdiocese, pleaded guilty in 1996 to having indecently assaulted two boys in a previous parish (Laverton in the 1960s). On 28 October 2011, Rubeo appeared in court again, charged with additional incidents from the 1960s and was ordered to re-appear on 16 December 2011 for a full hearing but he died (aged 78) before this next hearing date. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Paul-David Ryan Father Paul David Carl Ryan, Ballarat diocese, Victoria, was sentenced in 2006 to 18 months jail (12 months minimum) for offences against boys. See our story here. Fr Vince Ryan Father Vincent Gerard Ryan, of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, NSW, was sentenced in 1996-97 to 16 years (minimum of 11) for offences against boys. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Peter Searson This Melbourne diocesan priest pleaded guilty in a magistrates’ court in 1997 to physically assaulting a 12-year-old altar boy. The police also had evidence of sexual abuse committed by Searson, but Searson chose to plead guilty to the physical abuse, thereby ensuring a more lenient sentence. The court ordered Searson to observe a good-behaviour bond. Also in 1997, the Melbourne archdiocese’s Commissioner on Sexual Abuse investigated certain other allegations about Fr Searson, involving a number of women, boys and girls. See the Broken Rites report here. Fr Kelvin Sharkey On 29 April 2010, Father Kelvin Gerald Sharkey (a priest of the Wollongong Catholic Diocese in New South Wales) was sentenced to a minimum 15 months in jail after pleading guilty to buggery and indecent assault of an altar boy. See the Broken Rites story here here. Jack Shea John Rowan Shea was originally a priesthood trainee in Melbourne archdiocese and was later a prominent layman in Melbourne parish affairs and in the St Vincent de Paul Society. In 1996, aged 73, he was sentenced to three years jail (minimum of one year) for offences against boys in his “care” in the 1970s. Shea’s conviction relates to a period after he ceased being a trainee priest but the conviction is being included in this list, as a matter of public record, for the information of anybody who encountered Jack Shea in a church-related situation. Br Terence Simpson, former Christian Brother Terence Simpson, Brisbane, was sentenced to two years jail (suspended) for offences against boys. See our story here. Fr Michael Slattery On 9 August 2007 a Catholic priest from Western Australia, Father Michael Slattery, was sentenced in Sydney District Court to an 18-months jail sentence (suspended, with a good-behaviour bond) after he pleaded guilty to committing three acts of indecency (masturbation) in the presence of a schoolgirl, who was aged 14 to 15. The offences occurred in 1981-82 while Slattery was a lay teacher at a North Sydney Catholic girls school before becoming ordained as a priest for Western Australia. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Brian Spillane On 19 April 2012, a Sydney court sentenced Brian Joseph Spillane to nine years jail (with parole after five years) for indecently assaulting three young girls when he was working as a Catholic priest (in the Vincentian religious order) in New South Wales in the 1970s and ’80s. He is awaiting  further court proceedings for alleged sexual offences against boys. See the Broken Rites story here. Br Peter Spratt Marist Brother Peter Richard Spratt (born 2 August 1937) used to work at Marist College in Canberra. In 1996 he pleaded guilty to two acts of indecency against a 14-year-old boy from the school. The incidents occurred in 1979 at a Marist Brothers’ residence at Wategoes Beach, Byron Bay, NSW, and at a holiday centre in Jindabyne, NSW. A magistrate at Cooma Local Court placed Spratt on a $2,000, two-year good-behaviour bond. Brother Spratt also taught at Marist Brothers, Pagewood, Sydney. It is believed that in the 1960s he taught with the Marist Brothers at Lismore, NSW. In those years he was probably known by a “religious” name, rather than his real name. It was common for Marist Brothers to adopt a “religious” name such as Bartholomew, Ignatius, Aloysius, Xaverius, etcetera. Br Gregory Sutton Marist Brother Gregory Joseph Sutton (born 19 March 1951) taught in the 1980s at Catholic primary schools in New South Wales, where he has admitted committing numerous serious offences, including rapes of young girls and indecent assaults of young boys. He fled to the USA, where he became  principal of a Catholic school. He was extradited back to Australia, where he was jailed in 1996 for a maximum of 18 years (with parole possible after 12 years). See our story here. Fr John Sweeney Father John Gerard Patrick Sweeney, St Gerard Majella order, Parramatta  diocese, NSW, 18-27 months jail.  See our story here. Fr Tadeusz Swiatkowski Father Tadeusz Swiatkowski, of the Society of Christ (a Polish religious order in Australia), appeared in a Brisbane court in 1994 for soliciting a prostitute (he later moved to Mayfield West, Newcastle, NSW). Alan Swingler Alan Edward Swingler (born in September 1941) was originally a Marist Brother but left the Marist order and became a lay teacher of religious studies at St Joseph’s Christian Brothers’ College, Geelong, Victoria, where he stayed for 18 years. In 1996 Swingler, aged 54, was sentenced to seven years jail (minimum of five years) on one incident of buggery, three incidents of gross indecency and nine of indecent assault of boys. Outside the court, the mother of one victim said that, even after the family complained to the school about the crimes, the school kept Swingler on its staff. Br Colgan Taylor In Brisbane District Court on 29 November 2002, Marist Brother Colgan Taylor (then aged 80 and living in Sydney) was sentenced to 18 months’ jail after pleading guilty to four counts of indecent dealing with two young girls in central Queensland between 1979 and 1983. One girl was aged five or six when abused. The second victim was intellectually disabled and aged between eight and 11 when abused. The abuse was not reported until the youngest victim came forward in May 2002. Taylor was ordered to serve four months of the sentence, with the remainder suspended. Br George Taylor, De La Salle After one of his victims finally contacted the police, Albert Matthew Taylor (known as “Brother George“) pleaded guilty in the Sydney District Court on 8 August 1995 to two incidents of indecently assaulting an 11-year-old boy. The assaults occurred in 1967 at De La Salle College, Revesby, Sydney. Taylor, aged 79 in 1995, was placed on a three-year good behaviour bond. Taylor’s other schools included De La Salle College, Orange, NSW. See the Broken Rites story here. Br Peter Toomey Christian Brother Peter John Toomey pleaded guilty in 2005 to offences against 10 boys at Trinity Regional College in Brunswick, Melbourne, in the 1970s. He was finally sentenced to  4 years 3 months jail, with parole after 2 years 6 months. Originally the sentence was 27 months jail (with parole after six months) but this was increased after an appeal by the prosecution, on behalf of the victims. See our story here. Fr John Treacy Father John Leslie Treacy (born 30 October 1943) was ordained on 19 May 1972 and belongs to the Sandhurst diocese in northern Victoria, where his original parishes included Tatura, Beechworth, Tallangatta, Wodonga and Rushworth. In 1993 he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a boy from one of his parishes and was given a non-custodial sentence (good-behaviour bond). The Sandhurst diocese later arranged for Treacy to move to Queensland, where Queensland bishops accepted him to minister in parishes and as a hospital chaplain, while he continued to be officially listed as a priest of the Sandhurst diocese. Fr Adrian Van Klooster Father Adrian Richard Van Klooster, Western Australia and NSW, was sentenced in 2003 in W.A. to 8 yrs jail for offences against boys and girls. He is eligible for parole but no minimum period was specified. See our story here. Paul Van Ruth, a former Brother On 4 March 2011 Peter Paul VAN RUTH, of Adelaide, was jailed after he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two boys in 1969 while he was a religious Brother at Salesian College, “Rupertswood”, Sunbury, Victoria. See the Broken Rites story here. Br Geoffrey Veness Marist Brother Geoffrey Sydney Veness (born 30 September 1953) was sentenced to 12 months  jail (suspended) after pleading guilty to offences against a boy who was a pupil at St Augustine’s College, Cairns, Queensland. Br Keith William Weston Christian Brother Keith William Weston, Melbourne, was sentenced to 30 months jail (suspended) for offences against boys. See our court story here. Also, see an article by a Weston victim here. Fr Leo Wright Father Leo Daniel Wright, Brisbane archdiocese, was jailed for 3 yrs (1995) and 18 months (1997) for offences against girls and a boy. See our story here. The above list is confined to Broken Rites cases — that is, criminal prosecutions in which Broken Rites Australia gives support to victims either before or after the court proceedings. For civil out-of-court cases, see Section B, below. And Sections A and B are confined to priests and religious brothers (including trainees). For lay teachers in church schools, see some examples in Section F, at the bottom of this page.Section B: Out-of-court civil cases, researched by Broken Rites As well as the above-listed criminal prosecutions (conducted by the police), a victim can take out-of-court civil action against the Catholic Church authorities for having inflicted the offender upon the victim. This can force the church to acknowledge the harm that has been done to the victim’s life (including harm done by the church’s tradition of cover-up). This can give the victim a sense of empowerment. Sometimes this action can force the church to give a written apology to the victim. Perhaps, the church might even offer to reach a private settlement with the victim, as the church often regards this as a cheap way of protecting the church’s public image and its assets. Here are a few examples of cases (researched by Broken Rites), in which victims could tackle the church authorities for justice. Fr Bert Adderley In February 2005, the Bunbury diocese in Western Australia admitted that it was dealing with complaints that Reverend Dr Bertram Richard Adderley, Ph.D., B.A, sexually abused boys in the 1960s and ’70s. According to Broken Rites research, Bertram Adderley had been a lay teacher at the Christian Brothers’ Aquinas College in Perth in the 1950s before entering the priesthood. He served as a priest in the Bunbury diocese from 1959 to 1974. In the early 1960s (after working as a priest at the Narrogin parish), Dr Adderley oversaw Catholic education in the Bunbury diocese but in 1965, following complaints about sexual abuse, he was relegated, out-of-sight, to parishes at Mannup and Manjimup. In 1975, he left parish ministry, “on leave”. One alleged victim from Manjimup says that Adderlely persisted in seeing him after 1975, visiting him at his Catholic high school and taking him on excursions (including nude bathing) until 1979. Brother Pascal Alford Christian Brother Donald Paschal Alford worked at St Augustine’s orphanage, Geelong Victoria. See our story here. Fr David Anderson After action by Broken Rites, the Lismore Catholic diocese in northern New South Wales has apologized to two families who complained about sexual abuse committed by Father Clarence David Anderson (also known as Fr David Anderson). One complaint concerned two brothers, aged 14 and 9, who encountered Anderson while he was ministering in Macksville, including Nambucca Heads (on the mid-north coast), in 1966-68. The boys’ father had died, so their mother allowed this priest to “befriend” the boys, because the boys “needed a father”. Another complaint concerned two brothers, aged 9 and 15, who encountered Anderson when he ministered in the Tweed Heads parish (near the Queensland border) in 1969. These latter two brothers, likewise, were from a fatherless family; and they, too, were “befriended” by Anderson. Fr John Ayers, Salesian order The Catholic religious order of Salesian Fathers has  made an out-of-court settlement with a former schoolboy who encountered Father Jack Ayers while attending Salesian College, “Rupertswood”, near Melbourne, when aged 12 to 13. See more here. Fr Herbert Balding In 1997, after consulting Broken Rites, a Melbourne woman (Noreen) complained to the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese about a hospital chaplain (Father Herbert Balding, a member of the Jesuit order). In 1978, when she was a married woman aged in her thirties, Father Balding targeted Noreen sexually while she was in a vulnerable state, seriously ill, as a in-patient at Melbourne’s Mercy Hospital. The abuse disrupted her recovery and her later life. The archdiocese complaints commissioner (Peter O’Callaghan, QC) accepted the complaint and ruled that Noreen had indeed been sexually abused by Balding. Br Bede (St John of God order) Former inmates of four homes operated by the Hospitaller Order of St John of God have complained to police or the Catholic Church and/or Broken Rites that they were sexually assaulted by Brother Bede Donnellan (real name John Joseph Donnellan). Separate complaints came from four locations — Chelthenham, Greensborough and Lilydale (all in Melbourne) and the Granada Hostel in Ashgrove (Brisbane). Bede Donnellan died in 1995. See more about the St John of God order here. Br. C. Beedon, Melbourne Broken Rites is researching Christian Brother C. Beedon, who taught in the late 1960s and early 1970s at St Mary’s boys’ parish primary school (next-door to Christian Brothers College) in East St Kilda, Melbourne. Br Luke Beltram, De La Salle Two families (one in Victoria and one in New South Wales) have complained about Brother Luke Beltram, a religious teacher in the Catholic order of De La Salle Brothers. Luke Francis Beltram was born about 1947. His teaching appointments included De La Salle schools at Dandenong VIC, Dubbo NSW, Malvern VIC, East Bentleigh VIC and (finally) Castle Hill NSW. He died on 10 March 2000, aged 53. See our story here. Br Benildus, De La Salle order The Catholic order of De La Salle Brothers has accepted and settled  complaints by former students (now elderly) who were sexually abused by “Brother Benildus” at De La Salle’s Oakhill College in Castle Hill (north-west of Sydney) in the 1950s. This senior Brother was born as Laurence de Moulin but adopted the religious name “Brother Benildus Joseph” in emulation of a 19th century “Saint Benildus”. At Oakhill (a boarding school), he taught primary-school boys at Year Six level or thereabouts, and he supervised the boarders, including in their dormitory. Benildus later worked at St Bernard’s Junior College, “Clairvaux” (which was then a boarding school in Katoomba NSW), where (according to former pupils) he was again sexually intrusive. Br “Bertinus” In 2010, Australian Marist Brothers held a ceremony to “praise and congratulate” six long-serving Brothers — including a one who was formerly known as Brother “Bertinus”.  A few months earlier, the Marists’ Australian administration had apologised to three ex-pupils for an encounter which each of them allegedly had with Brother “Bertinus” many years ago in their school days. See the Broken Rites report here. Fr Tony Bongiorno The Melbourne Catholic archdiocese commissioner on sexual abuse, Mr Peter O’Callagahan, QC, has upheld complaints that Father Anthony Salvatore Bongiorno sexually abused boys who were under his supervision. Fr Anthony Bongiorno was the Parish Priest in charge of St Ambrose’s parish, Brunswick, Melbourne, in the 1980s and early ’90s. See our story here. Fr Glenn Boyd, Wagga Wagga diocese In 2004, Father Glenn Boyd left the priesthood of  the Wagga Wagga Catholic diocese in southern  New South Wales after issues had been raised  about aspects of his youth work. See more here. BoysTown (De La Salle Brothers, Queensland) In 2011 the Catholic religious order of De La Salle Brothers agreed to offer an out-of-court settlement to a former pupil, who lived in the 1960s at BoysTown (a Catholic institution for disadvantaged boys) in Beaudesert, Queensland. Similar complaints have come from others who were there in later decades. See more here. Fr John  Byrne, S.J. The Catholic Jesuit order in Australia has acknowledged that a Jesuit priest, Fr John Byrne, engaged in “problematic behaviour” against pupils while he was teaching  at Xavier College, Melbourne, in 1971. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Joseph Caldwell Two women, who do not know each other, have complained in Western Australia about being molested by Father Joseph Caldwell. He was a member of the Salvatorian order of Catholic priests, which is also known as the Society of the Divine Saviour. One complainant said she was abused in 1977, aged 8, and the other said she was abused in 1984 and 1985, aged 9 and 10. Both women told Broken Rites that the abuse (and the secrecy about it) adversely affected their personal development into their adolescence and adulthood. Born in Ireland, Caldwell had worked as a priest in many countries before coming to  Australia. His parishes in Western Australia in the 1970s and ’80s included Greenmount, Dampier, Wickham and Midland. In 1980-81 he served in Western Australia’s Bunbury diocese. West Australian police have ascertained that Caldwell left Australia in the late 1980s and later died in Ireland. Br Brendan Carroll In 2005 and 2006, after action by Broken Rites, the Australian head of the De La Salle Brothers apologized to two women for sexual abuse by Brother Brendan George Carroll when they were young girls. See our story here. Fr Tom Carroll, Melbourne Broken Rites is researching Father Thomas Carroll, of the Melbourne archdiocese, after complaints by former altar boys who were at Caulfield South (Holy Cross parish) in the 1960s. Carroll’s earlier parishes included Mansfield and Epping, etc. He died in 1975. Fr Dermot Casey, Brisbane Broken Rites is researching Father Dermot Casey, who has ministered in the Brisbane archdiocese. His parishes included Cannon Hill, Beenleigh and Salisbury. See more from Broken Rites here. Chevalier College, Bowral, NSW Some ex-pupils of Chevalier College (a Catholic high school near Bowral in southern New South Wales) are still recalling allegations that a Catholic priest behaved indecently towards young boys at the school in the late 1980s. This school is owned by a religious order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. See more here. Br Cleophas Broken Rites is researching Marist Brother Cleophas Simmons (born on 26 March 1926), whose real name was John Edward Simmons (known to his family as Eddie). He became a trainee Brother at age 16 and spent his whole working life as a Marist Brother: at North Fitzroy, Bulleen, Templestowe and Sale in Victoria; Mount Gambier in South Australia; and Forbes, Leeton and Griffith in New South Wales. Br Colmcille, Trappist monk, Melbourne Born in Ireland as Thomas Clifford, he adopted the Gaelic “religious” name Colmcille (pronounced Kollum-Kill) in honour of an ancient Irish missionary, Saint Columba (in Gaelic, also spelt as Colum Cille). Until 1974, Colmcille lived at Tarrawarra Abbey in Yarra Glen, east of Melbourne. This is the Australian address of the Cistercian  Monks — also known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.) or the order of Trappist monks. Two women, who do not know each other, have complained (separately) that they were digitally raped, at the age of nine, by Brother Colmcille when their families (and others) used to visit this monastery about 1969-1970. Brother Colmcille later returned to Ireland, leaving damaged victims in Australia. The Cistercian order has apologised for harm done by   Colmcille. Fr Ernie Conlan, MSC order A Tasmanian family has recently learned that three of its daughters were sexually abused by Father Ernest Conlan, a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), when they were young girls between 1958 and 1963. Conlan was then the parish priest at Kings Meadows, near Launceston. As Conlan was a “friend” of the family, the young girls felt that they could not tell their parents about the abuse at the time, but they have disclosed the abuse in recent years, five decades after the events. In 1965, Conlan went to Adelaide (at the Sacred Heart parish, Hindmarsh). In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a chaplain at St Vincent’s Boys’ Home, Westmead, in western Sydney. Monsignor Joseph Conway The Port Pirie Catholic diocese, which includes the northern parts of South Australia, has acknowledged that Monsignor Arthur Joseph Conway sexually abused boys. Conway, who was evidently called by his middle name (Joseph), died in 1975 but victims are still feeling the hurt. Conway was given an elaborate grave and victims protested about this. Monsignor A.J. Conway’s later years were spent around Quorn, Orroroo and Carrieton (all east of Port Augusta). Ronald Conway, Catholic psychologist This Melbourne therapist was highly regarded by Catholic Church leaders and he received many of his clients through Catholic hospitals and other Catholic agencies. He allegedly touched some of his young male clients sexually. These clients have grounds for demanding, at least, an apology from the church authorities. Ron Conway also acted for the church authorities in “screening” men who wished to become trainee priests in Victoria. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Peter Creede, CM Broken Rites Australia is investigating Father Peter Philip Creede, of the Catholic Vincentian order (the “Congregation of the Mission”). Born in Ireland (with seven siblings who became nuns or priests), he was ordained in Sydney. He worked at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst (New South Wales), followed by parishes in Southport and Wandal (Queensland), Ashfield (NSW) and Malvern (Victoria). Fr Pat Cusack, Canberra After action by Broken Rites, the Canberra-Goulburn archdiocese admitted that Father Patrick Cusack sexually assaulted primary school girls in St Matthew’s parish in Page, a Canberra suburb, in the 1970s. See our story here. Fr Denis Daly This Irish-born priest belonged to the Sydney archdiocese, but after he got into trouble with Sydney police, the church transferred him to Western Australia and then allowed him to roam the world, thereby putting more children at risk. One boy victim in Ireland died by suicide. See our story here. Fr Bernard Day Father Bernard Maxwell Day, of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, lived in 1961-63 in a flat at St Catherine’s girls’ orphanage (conducted by the Sisters of Mercy) in Geelong, where he acted as the “chaplain”, giving the girls “sex education”. Some of these women are still trying to repair their damaged lives. See our story here. Br Wilfred De Cruz The Catholic religious order of De La Salle Brothers has made amends with two former pupils of a De La Salle secondary school at Scarborough, Queensland (now called Southern Cross Catholic College). The ex-pupils have complained about being indecently assaulted by Brother Wilfred D’Cruz. See our story here. Fr Mark Devoy A number of women, now in mature age, have provided evidence that Fr Mark Devoy SM (from the Society of Mary religious order) committed sexual assaults on them when they were young school girls in the 1950s and 1960s. These victims lived in different parts of Australia; they did not know each other; and the attacks happened in various parishes. Devoy was protected by the Society of Mary while he worked in their parishes in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth (and also, previously,  in New Zealand). One woman says some of the assaults occurred during Confession. Br Richard Doheny, Sydney Broken Rites Australia is investigating this member of the Catholic order of Patrician Brothers in New South Wales. He was born (real name John Doheny) on 3 September 1935 in Ireland (at Balingarry, Thurles, County Tipperary), the third youngest of twelve children. He became a Patrician Brother in Ireland (becoming “Brother Richard”) and arrived in Australia in 1956, aged 21. He lived and worked (at primary and junior secondary levels) in Patrician Brothers schools in western Sydney (at Fairfield, Blacktown and Granville) until 2009. Fr Patrick Doherty, Armidale Diocese, NSW The Catholic Church’s professional standards office in New South Wales has received a complaint from an elderly man who says he is still upset about having been sexually abused by Father P.G. Doherty when the complainant was a schoolboy in the Armidale diocese (in north-western NSW) in 1944-49. The boy was attending a Catholic parish primary school (aged seven to twelve) in Bundeera (between Armidale and Inverell). This school is closed now and the Bundeera parish (St Mary of the Angels) is administered now from Uralla. In 2008, when this complaint was being considered by the Armidale diocese, the diocese was acting evasively, which is a frequent response from church authorities. Father Patrick Doherty’s other parishes included Walcha, Bingara, and Warialda.  This priest died in the 1950s and is said to be buried in the Armidale cemetery. It is common for a church victim to be still upset by childhood abuse many decades many years after the original cover-up, as shown by a similar case here. Fr Frank Donovan, Redemptorist priest The Catholic Church’s Professional Standards Office in New South Wales has “accepted the veracity” of two complaints about Father Francis Donovan, a priest of the Redemptorist Fathers (also called the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer). Two women, acting separately, had complained that Donovan molested them when they were young girls in the late 1970s in buildings attached to  the Sacred Heart parish church in Campbell’s Hill, Maitland. See our story here. Fr Rex Donohoe In 2007, after action by Broken Rites, Archbishop Adrian Doyle of Hobart gave a written apology to a former altar boy of Fr Rex Donohoe. The archdiocese accepted a complaint that Donohue abused this victim in the Kingston parish in Tasmania in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Donohue specialised in the “training” of altar boys and this victim says that he was not the only altar boy who was abused by Donohoe. Donohoe established the Australian “Guild of St Stephen”, an organisation for altar boys. Donohue was later at Tasmania’s Lenah Valley parish and was also the Hobart diocesan master of ceremonies. Fr Bob Drake Broken Rites is researching Father Robert Drake, of the Sandhurst diocese in northern Victoria. In the 1970s his parishes included Wangaratta and Wodonga in Victoria’s north-east. After that, he worked outside the diocese — at a seminary in Papua New Guinea in the 1980s and at the Banyo seminary in Brisbane, Queensland, in the 1990s. Back in Victoria again, he was at the Chiltern parish in 1998 and at St Joseph’s parish, Quarry Hill (in Bendigo) from 1999 to 2006. Br K.E. Duckworth, Melbourne Broken Rites is researching Christian Brother Keith Evin Duckworth, who touched boys inappropriately at the  Parade College junior campus  (for years 7 and 8) in Alphington, Melbourne, in the 1970s. Fr Aidan Duggan A Sydney man (“John”) contacted Broken Rites and also lodged a formal complaint with the Catholic Church’s “Towards Healing” office in 2002. He was a 14-year-old altar boy in the Bass Hill parish (near Bankstown) in Sydney in 1975, when he became a victim of Fr Aidan Duggan. Duggan, a priest of the Benedictine order, had previously been in Scotland. He was recruited by the Sydney archdiocese to work in Sydney parishes. John said Duggan sexually abused him (including oral and anal incidents) frequently throughout his adolescence. The abuse convinced John that he (John) was naturally homosexual and it was many years before he realized that he was really heterosexual. This confusion, he said, disrupted his adolescent development and adversely affected his two marriages. This led to a psychological crisis and the loss of his high-profile job. In 2002, through Towards Healing, the archdiocese offered John an out-of-court settlement of $30,000. John decided, instead, to sue the archdiocese in the New South Wales Supreme Court for a much larger sum for damages to cover his loss of his considerable professional earnings. In 2006 the Supreme Court granted permission for John’s case to proceed in court, but the archdiocese successfully appealed to the NSW Court Appeal. In May 2007 the Appeal Court stopped John’s legal action and ordered him to pay the church’s legal costs. The church paid massive fees to its lawyers to win this legal victory over John but the church regarded these fees as money well spent, expecting that this precedent would help to demoralise other church-abuse victims. According to Broken Rites research, Fr Aidan Duggan’s later parishes in Sydney included Gymea, Camperdown and Drummoyne before he retired in 1995. He died in 2004. John believes that he was not Duggan’s only victim. Archbishop James Duhig Three women, who do not know each other, have complained to Broken Rites that they were sexually abused in Queensland by Archbishop James Duhig when they were young. For example, one woman said she was assaulted by Duhig when she was living in the Brisbane Cathedral parish in 1941 aged six. James Duhig was Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane for 50 years until 1965. Br Wayne Duncan After action by Broken Rites, the Marist Brothers in New South Wales have apologised to a victim of Brother Wayne Duncan. The victim, then aged 12, was a border at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, in Sydney. Duncan (born in 1956) taught there from 1982 to 1989. Duncan targeted this boy while knowing that the boy was estranged from difficult parents. Duncan’s abuse seriously disrupted the victim’s later life. Duncan taught previously at Marist Brothers in Parramatta and later at Ashgrove (Brisbane), Canberra and Lidcombe (Sydney). Br Wilfred Eastmure Christian Brother Wilfred Eastmure worked at St Augustine’s orphanage and St Vincent’s orphanage in Victoria. See our story here. Br M.J. Esler Broken Rites is researching Brother Maurice Esler, from the Victoria-Tasmania province of the Christian Brothers. Brother Eunan or “Union” The Catholic order of De La Salle Brothers has settled with some victims of Brother John McHugh, whose religious name was “Brother Eunan“, which some of his ex-pupils pronounce as yoon-yon as in “trade union”. (There was once a Saint Eunan in Ireland.) Born in Ireland, Eunan McHugh was one of a significant number of Irish-born religious personnel who surfaced in Australia. In the early 1950s, Eunan McHugh taught and supervised boys at two schools in Katoomba, west of Sydney: “Clairvaux”” (the junior school of St Bernard’s College, Katoomba); and St Canice’s parish primary school, Katoomba. At Clairvaux, a  boarding school, Brother “Union”  was in charge of a dormitory and he himself slept next to the dormitory. Later in the 1950s, he taught at De La Salle College in Cronulla, in Sydney’s south (and this school, too, had boarders). Br P.T. Farrell, St Virgil’s College, Hobart In 2006, the Christian Brothers made a civil  settlement with a former student of St Virgil’s College in Hobart, Tasmania. This ex-student had told Broken Rites in 1993 that, when he was a boarder at St Virgil’s (aged seven to eight) in the mid-1950s, he was sexually assaulted by Brother Patrick Timothy Farrell. This Brother, who was nicknamed “Jacky” Farrell at St Virgil’s, was in charge of the junior dormitory for several years until mid-1957. After that, he worked in various Christian Brothers institutions in Sydney. Marist Brother Stephen Farrell The Marist Brothers head office in Sydney has settled complaints about child-abuse involving Marist Brother Stephen Farrell who died in 2004, aged 81. He taught for many years in New South Wales and Queensland. See more here. “Father F“, New South Wales The church authorities covered up for “Father F” in the Armidale diocese (in northern New South Wales) from the early 1980s onwards after receiving complaints about him abusing children, and in 1989 the church authorised him to transfer to parishes in the Parramatta diocese (near Sydney), giving him access to more children. According to a church document, Father F has admitted that he committed sexual acts upon children. The church has paid compensation to two of these complainants for their damaged lives but the victims’ families are still feeling the hurt. The cover-up continued for 30 years until it was exposed by the media in 2012. Read more here. Br Fintan, De La Salle schools Brother Fintan Dwyer worked in De La Salle schools around Australia. Various ex-pupils have complained that Brother Fintan touched them sexually. His birth name was Louis Victor Dwyer. “Brother Fintan” was his “religious” name. Brother Fintan (not to be confused with a colleague, Brother Finian Allman) toured De La Salle schools, recruiting boys as future Brothers. He died in 1990. See our story here. Fr Gerry Fitzgerald, Melbourne Broken Rites Australia is researching Father Gerard Fitzgerald, who spent 51 years as a priest in the Melbourne Archdiocese before retiring in 2006. In one of his early parishes (Coburg in 1964), there was a police investigation into sexual offences against children. See more here. Fr Dominic Fitzmaurice After action by Broken Rites, the Australian head of the Dominican Fathers apologised to a woman for sexual assaults committed by Father Dominic Fitzmaurice in Our Lady of Graces parish at Carina in Brisbane in 1972, when she was aged 12. See our story here. Fr Bill Fleming, Boys Town, NSW, 1979 During the trial of Father Paul Raymond Evans in Sydney District Court in July 2008, one of Evans’s victims (from Boys Town school near Sydney) told the court that, after he was molested by Evans in 1979, the assault was reported to the school administration. The boy said he was later told by the school’s head, Father William Fleming (a member of the Salesian order) to forget about the incident because “men have urges”. The court heard that Father Fleming allegedly assaulted another boy, who had also made allegations against Evans. Fleming was the rector of Boys Town during the 1970s. Fr Leo Flynn The Melbourne archdiocese has apologized to a woman for sexual abuse committed by Fr Leo Flynn, a priest of the Jesuit order. At the time of the abuse, Flynn was working in a parish which the Jesuit Fathers were staffing on behalf of the Melbourne archdiocese. At first, the woman complained to the Jesuit order (the Society of Jesus) but the Jesuit administration ignored her.  Broken Rites then helped the woman to present her case to the Melbourne archdiocese. The archdiocese accepted the woman’s account and apologised (this was reported in the Melbourne “Herald Sun” on 8 May 2000). Br Greg Fogarty Broken Rites is researching Christian Brother Leo Gregory Fogarty (known as Brother GREG Fogarty) who worked at St Augustine’s boys’ orphanage (in Geelong, Victoria) from 1978 to 1985 inclusive; he became the superintendent there in 1979. See some background about St Augustine’s orphanage here. Fr Julian Fox In 2000, a Catholic order of priests in Australia (the Salesians of Don Bosco) made a  settlement with a Melbourne man (Luke, born in 1964). According to the settlement deed (of which Broken Rites has a copy), Luke alleged that “over a period of time between 1978 and 1979, whilst a student at Salesian College, Rupertswood, Sunbury [Melbourne], he was unlawfully sexually and/or physically assaulted by Fr Fox”. In 2006, six years after the settlement, Luke died, aged 42. Father Fox now has a position at the Salesian headquarters in Rome. See our story here. Fr Laurie Gallagher, Marist Fathers Broken Rites is researching Father Lawrence Gallagher, S.M. (a member of a religious order, the Society of Mary), who taught at Marist College in Burnie, Tasmania, in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the late 1980s he was at St John’s College, Woodlawn, in Lismore New South Wales. He was also a relieving minister in parishes around Australia. For example, in 1991, he was the Parish Priest in charge of St Thomas More’s parish at Margaret River (in the Bunbury diocese) in Western Australia. It is believed that he formerly served as a missionary in Japan. This Laurie Gallagher is not to be confused with a former diocesan priest of the same name in Victoria. Fr Kevin Glover, Western Australia Broken Rites is researching Father William Kevin Glover (known as Kevin Glover) who worked in the Bunbury diocese in Western Australia from 1959 to 1979 (including parishes at Esperance in the 1970s and Margaret River in the 1980s). In the 1990s, he worked at a Catholic Mission on the Pacific Island of Niue, situated to the north of New Zealand. Fr Gerald Goss Women in several parts of Australia have complained to Broken Rites that they were indecently assaulted by this priest, who was a member of the itinerant Redemptorist order, visiting countless parishes throughout Australia. His victims included housekeepers in parish presbyteries, as well as women parishioners. Br Julian Hackett Christian Brother Vincent Julian Hackett was the superintendent of St Augustine’s orphanage, Geelong, Victoria. See more from Broken Rites  here. Br “Anselm” Hallam This member of the De La Salle Brothers was born as Tom Hallam and adopted the “religious” name Anselm (sometimes also spelt Anselem), which was the name of a medieval “saint”. “Brother Anselm” Hallam taught in the late 1960s at St Joseph’s parish primary school, Malvern, in Melbourne, and also taught middle-school students at the neighbouring De La Salle College. According to numerous victims, he was a notorious molester.  He invasively mauled the genitals of his pupils. He gave “sex lessons” (really just “dirty talk”), while masturbating under his clerical frock. A female teacher, who knew what Anselm Hallam was doing, complained to the school’s head Brothers but they were not interested. Anselm Hallam died in the early 1990s, aged 92. One of his victims, who became a successful professional, has contributed an interview to the oral history collection at the National Library of Australia about his own professional career, and he included an account of his experiences at the hands of Brother Anselm Hallam. Fr John Harcombe Broken Rites is researching Father John J. Harcombe, who was ordained, about 1972, from St Paul’s Seminary for Late Vocations, in Kensington, Sydney. He ministered in the Sydney archdiocese (and also in the Broken Bay diocese, north of Sydney) at parishes in Lewisham, Gosford, Auburn South, Lakemba, Epping, Asquith and Kincumber. Fr Guy Hartcher In March 1994, the Catholic order of Vincentian Fathers (officially called the Congregation of the Mission) signed a civil settlement with a former student of St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, New South Wales. This student was at the school in 1971, when he was aged 14. In the settlement Deed of Release, the Trustees of the Vincentian Fathers state that this agreement is “in full and final settlement” of all or any rights and actions that the ex-student may have “against the Trustees, Father Guy Hartcher or any servant or agent of the Trustees.” See our story here. Br Bernard Hartman A member of the Marianist religious order, Brother Bernard Hartman (born about 1939), has written an apology to an Australian woman (born 1964) who alleged that he sexually abused her when she was a child in Melbourne in the 1970s. In 1985 Hartman moved to the USA, where the Marianists have allowed him to remain in this religious order. Br Bernard Hayes A man, “Roger”, contacted Broken Rites in 2004, stating that he had been sexually abused by Brother Bernard Robert Hayes at the Christian Brothers College preparatory school in Alphington, Melbourne, in 1969. Roger described how the abuse had damaged his psychological development and wrecked his marriage. Broken Rites advised Roger about how to deal with the Catholic Church professional standards office (“Towards Healing”). After much evasiveness, the Christian Brothers’ Melbourne headquarters accepted a report by a church psychologist and  gave Roger a letter of apology and eventually (in 2006) signed a civil settlement with Roger. Brother Hayes’s previous schools were: St Monica’s Boys’ School, Moonee Ponds VIC, 1942-44; St Kevin’s College, Toorak VIC, 1944-55; Rostrevor College, Adelaide, 1955-60; and St Joseph’s College, Pascoe Vale VIC, 1960-66. When Roger was abused at Alphington in 1969, Brother Hayes was aged 47.  The Alphington campus, which comprised Grades 7 and 8, was a preparatory school for Parade College, Bundoora, Melbourne. Br P.R. Heslin, Melbourne The Christian Brothers have acknowledged sexual offences that were committed against boys by Brother Robert Heslin in Melbourne. Heslin’s various schools included: Our Lady of Mount Carmel College, Middle Park; St Joseph’s, Pascoe Vale; and St Bernard’s College, Essendon. Br “Callixtus” Hogan Broken Rites has helped three former schoolchildren (two males and one female)   to extract a settlement from the Marist Brothers regarding incidents that allegedly occurred in New South Wales in the 1960s while Brother Kevin “Calixtus” Hogan was the principal of St Francis de Sales College (in Leeton) and Red Bend Catholic College (in Forbes). See more here. Marist Br. “Crispin” Hopson Broken Rites is investigating Marist Brother Kevin Nicholas Hopson (religious name Brother “Crispin”, called after Saint Crispin). Born on 6 February 1933, he worked at Marist Brothers schools in Sydney (Mosman, Daceyville, Lidcombe, Hunters Hill and Kogarah), as well as at Marist College, Canberra. Marist Brother Edward Hosey at Coogee NSW The Marist Brothers in New South Wales have made a small civil settlement with a former pupil (“Max“), who was at Marcellin Junior College (a primary school for boys in years 5 and 6) in 1973. This campus, which was then at 160 Coogee Bay Road, Coogee (Sydney), was a feeder school for the secondary-level Marcellin College at Randwick. Max made a formal, signed statement to the NSW police on 24 June 2003, alleging that he was mauled sexually by Brother Edward (his mathematics teacher) almost daily during 5th Grade, when he was aged 10. Brother Edward John Hosey (born 4 February 1911) has died and therefore the police cannot charge him. Max says the corrupt circumstances of this church-abuse disrupted his education and his adolescence, leaving him with serious difficulties in adulthood.  In August 2003 the Marist Brothers promptly accepted Max’s complaint and arranged  a civil settlement, although this does not make up for the disruption to Max’s life. Other victims of Hosey have contacted Broken Rites. Fr Cuthbert Hoy, MSC In early 2002, a woman (“Anne”) contacted Broken Rites, complaining that, when she was aged six in 1963, she was sexually assaulted on several occasions by Father Cuthbert Hoy, in the sacristy of “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart” church at Henley Beach in Adelaide. Hoy was a priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart order, which conducted the Henley Beach parish, plus some other parishes around Australia. By 1966, Hoy had moved to a Hobart parish, also conducted by the MSC order. Broken Rites advised Anne about preparing a case for the Catholic Church’s “Towards Healing” process. The MSC order gave Anne a written apology and, in 2003, it made a settlement with her. Fr James Hughes This priest (also known as Fr Jamie Hughes or Fr Jim Hughes) was born in Ireland on 15 May 1920 and was ordained in 1946. Father James Hughes ministered briefly in Hobart in 1947-49 and then in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales from 1949 until 1990. In 1977-81, he was a chaplain at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Waratah (a suburb of Newcastle, NSW). In August 2002, a woman notified the New South Wales police that she had been indecently assaulted by Hughes while she was a patient at this hospital in March 1981. After beginning an investigation, detectives found that Hughes had died in 1996 and he therefore could not be prosecuted. Backed by Broken Rites, the woman then approached the Catholic Church’s “Towards Healing” office. A private investigator, hired by the church, confirmed to Towards Healing that evidence “exists to support the complaint.” See our story here. Fr Kevin Johnston, Western Australia Born in Ireland, Father Kevin Daniel Johnston served as a priest in Western Australia’s Bunbury diocese from 1959 until 1997, when he retired to Ireland. The West Australian newspaper (February 16 and 26, 2005) revealed that Johnston was facing child-sex allegations. A man (Alan) alleged that at the age of nine or 10 in the early 1970s, when he was serving as an altar boy in morning Masses at Bunbury’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, the cathedral parish priest Kevin Johnston indecently mauled him on several occasions  in a dressing room. The priest also allegedly forced the boy to indecently touch the priest. Unable to tell his devout parents, the boy became a grumpy and rebellious teenager, ending up with a hard-drug addiction. In his thirties, trying to mend his life, Alan finally complained to the Bunbury diocese. Fr Johnston then gave Alan a written apology, dated 26 August 1997, and soon retired to Ireland.  In November 2004, the Bunbury diocese offered Alan a small payout to settle the complaint but Alan rejected this amount as insufficient to help his recovery. After the February 2005 publicity about Johnston, two more men reported that they were molested by Father Johnston, one during confession and the other more than 20 times as he served as an altar boy at the Bunbury cathedral. Broken Rites research indicates that during the last stages of his career, from the mid-1970s to 1997, Johnston ministered in parishes at Boyup Brook, Manjimup, Narrogin and Leschenhault/Australind. Monsignor Penn Jones After action by Broken Rites, the Melbourne archdiocese apologised in 2005 to two men who were sexually abused by Monsignor Penn Harold Jones (of the Melbourne cathedral parish) while they were schoolboys in the 1960s. Jones, who was an accountant before entering the priesthood, became the Chancellor of the Melbourne archdiocese. See our story here. Fr Charles Joyce, OFM Broken Rites is researching Father Charles Joyce, a member of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), who was working  at Padua College (a secondary school conducted by the Franciscan order) in Kedron, Brisbane, in the late 1960s. Fr Clem Kilby, Tasmania The Hobart Archdiocese has accepted and settled a complaint from a woman who said that she was sexually assaulted by Fr Clement Kilby. This priest had enjoyed a prestigious ranking in Tasmania. In the late 1970s, he worked in St Mary’s Cathedral parish in Hobart (where the priest in charge at the time was Rev. Geoffrey Hylton Jarrett, who eventually became the bishop of Lismore, New South Wales). Later, Kilby was given the rank of Episcopal Vicar for Welfare and was director of the Catholic Church’s Centacare Family Services in Hobart during the 1980s and 1990s. Ironically, Kilby also participated in a church committee that dealt with professional standards, including issues of sexual abuse — an obvious conflict of interest. He died in early 2009. Br Clim Kissane The Victoria-Tasmania province of the Christian Brothers has signed a civil settlement with a male former pupil of Brother Clim Kissane. Brother Kissane taught at various schools including: St Joseph’s College in Geelong;  St Virgil’s College in Hobart; St Joseph’s College in Pascoe Vale (Melbourne); Warrnambool Christian Brothers College (now called Emmanuel College) in Victoria; and St Joseph’s Technical College, South Melbourne. Br P.N. Lennox, Sydney In June 2012 the Christian Brothers organisation in Australia signed a settlement with a former pupil of Christian Brothers College, Manly (in Sydney), who attended this school as a 13-year-old boy about 1973.  According to the settlement deed, this ex-pupil alleges that he was “unlawfully assaulted by Brother Peter Norman Lennox, the principal of the school” and that consequently  he “has sustained loss, damage and injuries that may require specialist counselling and/or other therapy”. [The former CBC Manly is now called St Paul’s Catholic College, Manly.] Marist Br. Leon Mackey The Marist Brothers harboured “Brother Leon” (real name Noel Mackey, born on 31 July 1922) while he was sexually abusing Catholic schoolboys in Sydney and Newcastle until he suddenly left the Marist Order in 1955. He then went to Queensland and changed his surname. By 2012, the Marist Brothers had issued private apologies (plus financial settlements) to five of Brother Leon’s victims. Fr Bernard Mackin After action by Broken Rites, the Melbourne archdiocese has apologized to a female victim of this priest. She encountered the priest in the 1970s when she was 16. Marist Brothers Hamilton, Newcastle, NSW In 2011 the Marist Brothers signed a settlement with a former pupil who complained about sexual abuse by  Brother Leon in the junior classes at Marist Brothers Hamilton, Newcastle, NSW, in the early 1950s. Brother Leon (real name Noel Mackey, born 31 July 1922) left the Marist Order in late 1955, changed his name to Noel Desmond Dowling and worked in administration for Mount Isa Mines, Queensland, until 1983. Br “Norbert” Mathieson This Marist Brother (real name Joseph Eric Mathieson), who last taught at Marist schools in Parramatta and Eastwood (in Sydney), died in 1954 but, half a century later, former students still remember him as a sex-abuser. His victims were intimidated into silence but some of the victims (now elderly) have finally told their sons and daughters about this abuse. Thus, these sons and daughters are dismayed and angry that their fathers were secretly harmed in this way. See our story here. Fr Patrick Maye The Melbourne Catholic archdiocese promised to ban this priest after accepting sexual-abuse complaints from several women but it failed to enforce the ban on him completely. See more from Broken Rites here. Br L.C. McAllen Former pupils, now advancing in age, still feel the injustice of having been abused by Christian Brother L.C. McAllen at St Patrick’s College, Strathfield, Sydney, in the early 1960s. See more from Broken Rites here here. Fr Patrick McCarthy, Wollongong NSW, 1960s Broken Rites Australia is researching Fr Patrick Thomas McCarthy, who ministered in  the Wollongong diocese in New South Wales until the early 1970s. He was one of a significant number of Irish-born clergy who have surfaced, often unaccountably, in Australia. McCarthy’s parishes included: Corrimal (St Columbkille’s parish); Thirroul (St Michael’s parish), West Wollongong (St Teresa’s); and Helensburgh (Holy Cross parish). Fr John McCulloch, Sydney region Broken Rites is researching Fr John McCulloch, who ministered around Sydney (e.g., Katoomba parish in the 1980s). At Toukley and Gwandalan (on the coast, north of Sydney) he conducted “family camps for families in need.” Br Thomas McGee After action by Broken Rites, the Victorian province of the Christian Brothers has apologised to victims of Brother William Thomas McGee. Brother McGee worked at several Christian Brothers’ orphanages: in Bindoon and Castledare in Western Australia; St Augustine’s orphanage, Geelong, Victoria; and St Vincent’s boys’ home, South Melbourne. He also worked at St Vincent’s hostel, South Melbourne. See our story here. Daniel McMahon (Christian Brother, later a priest) Broken Rites has learned that the Catholic Church has made settlements with several former pupils who encountered Brother Daniel John Virgil McMahon while he was working with the Christian Brothers in Catholic boys’ schools in Western Australia (from the 1960s to the 1980s). In the early 1990s, Brother Dan McMahon was elevated to the rank of “Father” Dan McMahon and was allowed to minister as a priest in parishes in Tasmania. See more here. Br “Laetus” Mennie Former residents of St Vincent’s Boys’ Home at Westmead (in western Sydney), which was operated by the Marist Brothers, have complained about this Marist Brother (his birth name was Joseph Michael Mennie). Brother Laetus worked at this home in 1947-49 and was the director there in 1965-67. Fr Gerard Monaghan The Canberra-Goulburn Catholic diocese has been forced to apologise to a woman who was sexually abused by a priest (Fr Gerard Monaghan) immediately after the death of her husband. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Peter Moore, Wollongong NSW Broken Rites is researching Father Peter Moore, who was the vicar-general of the Wollongong Catholic diocese in New South Wales in the 1980s and 1990s, while he was also in charge of St John Vianney’s parish in Fairy Meadow. In the 1970s he had been at St Paul’s parish, Albion Park. Fr Brian Moran, Toowoomba diocese Two women, who do not know each other, have complained that, when they were young girls in the early 1960s, they were sexually abused by Father Brian Anthony Moran, of the Toowoomba diocese, which covers an extensive region in western Queensland. Father Brian Moran, who was born about 1929, was sometimes nicknamed Mick Moran. He ministered until 1995 throughout an area bounded by Toowoomba city, Dalby, St George, Cunnamulla, Mitchell and Miles. Fr John F. Moran, Rockkhampton & Sydney A man (“Tom”) reported to Broken Rites in 1994 that, as a 15-year-old in 1981, he was indecently assaulted by Father John Fabian Moran in the Sacred Heart parish at Yeppoon, in the Rockhampton diocese, in central Queensland. The boy’s parents were away from home and they understood that Father Moran would be supervising him. The parents had been led to believe that their child would be safe under the supervision of a Catholic priest. Father Moran visited the boy and took him on outings. After beginning with playful “wrestling”, Father Moran allegedly mauled the boy’s genitalia on several occasions, and Tom allegedly was required to masturbate the priest. The boy felt intimidated into silence and was not able to tell his Catholic parents about the assaults until he was aged 26 (he contacted Broken Rites at age 27). According to the Crimes Act, an adult who sexually mauls a young person is committing “indecent assault of a child” and the perpetrator is not allowed to claim, as a defence, that the child consented. This crime is regarded as being particularly aggravated when it is perpetrated by a person supposedly in a position of trust, such as a priest. Later in the 1980s and early 1990s, Fr John Moran was a chaplain at Rockhampton’s Emmaus College (a secondary school). About 1994-95, he was on the staff at St Paul’s Seminary for Late Vocations in Sydney and was a part-time school chaplain in Sydney. Fr Syd Morey Father Sydney Morey, a priest in the Ballarat diocese in western Victoria, sexually abused young boys in the 1960s and ’70s, including in the Horsham and Terang districts. However, the police are unable to do anything about Sid Morey now because he has died. Morey (born 9 August 1913) was originally a Marist Brother (in New South Wales) before becoming a priest. See our story here. Br. “Organ” Morgan, Monivae College, Victoria Leaders of a Catholic religious order — the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart — have apologised for sexual acts committed by Brother G.M. Morgan on boys at Monivae College at Hamilton in western Victoria in the 1960s. Students nicknamed this Brother as “Organ” Morgan because of his indecent assaults on boys’ genitals. Broken Rites possesses a written apology , which the MSC leadership gave to one ex-student, dated 22 February 1994. Morgan was not the only such offender on the Monivae College staff. Fr Gerald Moylan, northern Victoria Women have complained that Father Gerald Leo Moylan (of the Sandhurst diocese in northern Victoria) harassed them verbally about “sex” when they were schoolgirls in Wodonga, Victoria, in the 1960s (or when  women were interviewed by Moylan before a church wedding ceremony). In the 1970s and ‘80s, Moylan was in charge of the Numurkah parish and was appointed as the “spiritual director” of the Catholic Women’s League in the diocese. He was promoted to the rank of monsignor. Br Berchmans Moynahan Brother Martin Joseph Moynahan (alias Brother Berchmans), St John of  God order, died during prosecution (indecent assault at an institution  in Melbourne for boys with intellectual disabilities). See our story about the St John of God Brothers here. Fr Noel Murphy, Sydney The Sydney archdiocese has accepted a complaint from a woman about being indecently assaulted in 1974 by Father Nolan Joseph Murphy (known as Fr “Noel” Murphy), a Sydney-born priest, who was the parish priest in charge of St Augustine’s parish, Balmain, in inner-Sydney. Murphy was in that parish from the 1960s until 1988. Murrumburrah parish, NSW A man (“Peter”), born in 1961, made a lengthy, detailed written statement to a clinic of the  New South Wales Health Department in 2002, stating that in 1968-69 he was sexually assaulted by a senior parish priest (a Monsignor) in the “Our Lady of Mercy” parish at Murrumburrah, near Cootamundra, southern New South Wales (within the Canberra-Goulburn diocese). Shortly after the period of alleged abuse, the monsignor died in a road accident. Peter says his devout parents would not let him tell them that this Catholic clergyman had assaulted him. Forced into silence, Peter became estranged from his family. His later life was seriously affected. Peter is wondering if there were other victims in this parish in the late 1960s. Fr “Jerome” Myszkowski A South Australian woman (“Mandy”, born in 1945) says she is still feeling upset about having been sexually assaulted repeatedly by a Polish-born priest, Father Hieronim Myszkowski, when she was a young child in the St Francis Assisi parish in Newton, Adelaide, in 1950-54. This priest, who was known in Australia as Fr Jerome Myszkowski, was a member of the Capuchin Franciscan Friars (the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin). He befriended Mandy’s family and, from when the girl was aged 5, he made weekly visits for meals at their home, where (Mandy says) he would secretly touch Mandy’s genitalia (i.e., the crime of indecent assault). Mandy was unable to tell her parents because they believed that priests could do no wrong. Father Jerome also molested Mandy inside the church (while parishioners, including her father, were attending choir practice) and in his bedroom in the  presbytery. On the church premises, the sexual assaults of Mandy became more invasive and more criminally serious. The attacks continued for four years until Mandy was aged nine, in 1954, when Myszkowski left Adelaide to become a chaplain for the Brisbane Polish community, which was based at “Our Lady of Victories” parish in Bowen Hills, Brisbane. Mandy contacted Broken Rites in October 1993. She had written to the church authorities about Myszkowski but, she said, they were evasive. Broken Rites does not know if Mandy has achieved a successful outcome since then. Fr Martin Newbold Women in Western Australia and Victoria have complained that they were indecently assaulted by this diocesan priest when they were young girls. Newbold began in the Perth diocese but, strangely, was transferred to Melbourne, then to the Bunbury diocese in W.A., leaving victims in various parishes. Br Nicholas, Marist Brothers, 1948-50 A man (“Brian”, born in 1938) complained to the Catholic Church “Towards Healing” process in 2003 that he was sexually abused by a Brother “Nicholas” at a Marist Brothers school in Rosewater, South Australia, about 1948 when he was aged 10. Brian said he was forced to remain silent about the abuse at the time but he now realises that this code of silence was unfair, putting more children at risk. The Marist Brothers administration in Melbourne acknowledged to Brian that Brother Nicholas (real name Kevin Stanton, born 6 September 1922) taught at the Rosewater school in 1948, and he transferred to a Marist Brothers school in Thebarton (Adelaide) in 1949. In 2005, the Marist administration in Melbourne apologised to Brian for his unhappy experiences at the Rosewater school, and it made a relatively modest “ex gratia” payment to Brian to settle his complaint. Brian was not Nicholas’s only victim — in 1994 Broken Rites received a complaint from another man (“Daryl”, born 1942), saying that he was sexually abused by Brother Nicholas at the Marists’ Thebarton school, before Nicholas left there in 1950. The Marists say that Brother Nicholas left the Marist order in the early 1950s and has since died. Br Peter E. Noonan, Victoria The Christian Brothers Order has acknowledged that Brother Peter Eymard Noonan (born about 1949) used to sexually abuse young schoolboys who were in his custody. Despite this, it allowed Noonan to remain a Brother until he died in 2004, aged 55. This Noonan (not to be confused with other Noonans in the Order) was offending from the very start of his teaching career — at St Mary’s boys’ school, St Kilda (in inner-Melbourne) in the late 1960s. He later taught at St Kevin’s College (Toorak). In 1985 he went to CBC  St Kilda, where he became the headmaster in 1987. Fr John O’Callaghan, Adelaide After action by Broken Rites, the Adelaide Catholic diocese has made civil settlements with former altar boys of this priest. The incidents occurred in 1969-71 at St Monica’s parish, Walkerville, where O’Callaghan ministered from the mid-1960s till about 1981. Previously, O’Callaghan had been at Adelaide’s Salisbury parish. Fr John O’Callaghan, Melbourne Several people have complained about being abused (when they were youngsters) by Father John Ignatius O’Callaghan, of the Melbourne archdiocese. See more here. O’Callaghan was once a chaplain for the girls’ section of the Young Christian Workers (YCW) movement. He later worked in Melbourne suburban parishes and was a military chaplain.  Father O’Callaghan observed the church’s rule of priestly “celibacy” (that is, he did not get married to anybody); instead, in the 1980s, he had a private relationship with a woman, who gave birth to Father O’Callaghan’s two children. Fr Bill O’Connor, Parramatta diocese, NSW A woman (“Kerry”), born in the 1940s, has complained that she was sexually assaulted, aged 13, by Father William G. O’Connor (then an assistant priest in the Sydney archdiocese) in the presbytery at Springwood (St Thomas Aquinas parish) in the Blue Mountains in the late 1950s. The Catholic culture prevented the girl from telling her mother about having been sexually abused by a Catholic priest. All this disrupted the girl’s development, and Kerry is still suffering the damage today. Subsequently, O’Connor was the Parish Priest in charge of the Seven Hills parish (Our Lady of Lourdes) for thirty years to 1989. Springwood and Seven Hills were originally in the Sydney diocese but by 1989 they became a part of the new Parramatta diocese. William O’Connor rose in the church ranks in the 1970s and was given the title “Very Reverend”. Kerry went through the church’s Towards Healing process. At first the church officials behaved evasively but eventually they signed a settlement with her. Fr Thomas O’Keeffe After action by Broken Rites, the Melbourne archdiocese has apologized to former altar boys of Fr Thomas O’Keeffe (sometimes spelt as O’Keefe). He ministered at parishes in Sandringham (early 1960s), Preston East, St Kilda West and Brighton (late 1960s),  Doveton and Thornbury (1970s). See the Broken Rites story here. Br J. A. O’Neill The Catholic Church’s “Towards Healing” office has accepted some complaints about Christian Brother John Anselm O’Neill, who taught at Catholic schools including: St Gabriel’s school for the deaf, Castle Hill, NSW, in the 1950s; St Joseph’s primary school, Rozelle, Sydney, in the 1960s; and St Patrick’s primary school, Launceston, Tasmania, in the 1970s and 1980s. Br Theodore O’Shannessy The De La Salle Brothers have apologised to (and signed a settlement with) a victim of Brother Theodore O’Shannessy. This Brother, who was born about 1940 (real name Patrick O’Shannessy ), taught in De La Salle schools at Haberfield, Bankstown, Dubbo and Cootamundra (all in New South Wales) and Scarborough (in Queensland). Padua College, Kedron, Brisbane A former pupil of Padua College (a Catholic boys’ school at Kedron, Brisbane) has complained that he was sexually abused in the 1960s by a priest from the Franciscan order (the Order of Friars Minor — OFM). Brother Paschal, a Franciscan This Brother was in charge of the altar boys at the Mary Immaculate Catholic parish in Waverley, Sydney, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The parish, conducted by the Franciscans (the Order of Friars Minor), had a large number of altar boys, some of whom were pupils at the Christian Brothers’ Waverley College. In 2002 a former altar boy, “Pierre” (not his real name), notified the Catholic Church’s professional standards office (“Towards Healing”) in New South Wales that Brother Paschal used to touch Pierre’s genitals when he was aged from 8 to 13; and Brother Paschal used to make Pierre touch Brother Paschal’s genitals. Pierre said that he finally revealed the molestation to his parents when he was 22. Pierre said that three other young male relatives of his were also molested by Brother Pascal. Pierre said he was concerned that this child-abuse had occurred and that it had been hidden from parents and the public. The Franciscans’ Australian headquarters agreed to hold a mediation meeting with Pierre (who was then in his forties) to address his concerns. Brother Paschal’s real name was Ernest Joseph Bartlett. Paschal was his religious name (there was a “Saint Paschal” in the Franciscans in Spain in the 16th century). Paschal Bartlett died in Sydney on 27 April 1994. Br Mark Payne, a Marist Former pupils have complained about sexually abusive behaviour by Marist Brother Mark Donald Payne (born 5 December 1957) who taught at St Augustine’s College in Cairns, Queensland, about 1985. Fr Leo Perry Broken Rites is researching this priest in Australia and New Zealand. Originally, from 1948 to 1956, he was a member of the Jesuit religious order in New Zealand, where he taught young boys at high-school level in the Holy Name minor seminary (staffed by Australian Jesuits) at Riccarton, Christchurch. At this seminary, he invasively mauled the genitals of boys in their dormitory, in his private room and during car trips. In 1957 the church authorities covered up this problem by transferring Perry to the Townsville diocese in north Queensland, where he ministered (as a diocesan priest, not a Jesuit) in unsuspecting parishes: Mundingburra parish in the late 1950s; Ayr parish about 1960-61; and Townsville cathedral parish until 1967. Fr Dominic Phillips, Vincentian priest Some Australian adult women are still complaining about having been abused (when they were children) by Father Dominic Phillips, of the Vincentian Fathers order. See more from Broken Rites here. Br J.M. Podger, Sydney, 1953 Broken Rites is researching Brother Ronald John Podger (this surname rhymes with “Roger” or “lodger”) who taught at Christian Brothers Lewisham in 1952-53, using the religious name “John Maximus” Podger (called after an ancient “Saint” Maximus). Podger later left this religious order. A pupil (“Basil”, who was aged eleven in 1953) is still deeply concerned about Br Podger half a century later. The Christian Brothers have accepted (and settled) a complaint from Basil. Fr Peter Quirk, Maitland-Newcastle diocese Broken Rites is researching this priest (born 1 April 1957), who ministered from 1986 to 1991 at: Maitland cathedral; Toronto parish; and Taree parish. He targeted teenage boys. He died on 27 September 1991, aged 34. This Father Peter Quirk is not to be confused with any other priest of the same name in another diocese. Fr Graham Redfern The Melbourne Catholic archdiocese’s Independent Commission into Sexual Abuse found in November, 1997, that Father Graham Redfern had sexually abused a youth in 1976, after conducting the funeral of the youth’s mother. The then archbishop of Melbourne, George Pell, formally apologised in a letter to the complainant in May, 1998, for the “wrongs and hurt you have suffered at the hands of Father Redfern”. The archdiocese then signed a civil settlement with the complainant. See more here. Br Neil Richards, New South Wales After action by Broken Rites, the New South Wales province of the Christian Brothers has made a settlement with a former student, who had lodged a complaint about a Brother Richards.  The settlement deed identified the Brother as “Desmond Eric Richards“, but he was known in the Christian Brothers as Br Neil Richards. He taught in Catholic primary schools in Sydney and country New South Wales until he retired. Br Bernie Ring Broken Rites is researching Christian Brother Bernard Ring (born 22 May 1934). As a child, he lived at St Vincent’s boys’ home in South Melbourne (until 1951) and then, like some other orphanage boys, he became a Christian Brother. Brother B.A. Ring worked in schools at Geelong, Ballarat (St Patrick’s College), East Melbourne and Fiji, and at St Vincent’s boys’ home, South Melbourne. Fr Robert Rippin Broken Rites is researching Father Robert Frederick Rippin, a priest in the  Missionaries of the Sacred Heart order, who taught at MSC secondary schools around Australia: Chevalier College (Bowral, NSW), Downlands College (Toowoomba, Queensland) and Monivae College (Hamilton, Victoria). Fr A. Kevin Ryan, Melbourne In 2003, following action by Broken Rites, the Melbourne archdiocese’s commissioner on sexual abuse (Mr Peter O’Callaghan, QC) accepted a complaint by “James” (born in 1954) that Father Arthur Kevin Ryan (known as Fr Kevin Ryan) sexually abused him as an 11-year-old pupil at St Matthew’s parish school, Fawkner North, about 1965. Ryan’s other Melbourne parishes included Yarraville, Thornbury and Glenhuntly. Mr O’Callaghan ruled that “James” was also sexually abused by a prominent Catholic layman, Robert Charles Blunden (known as Bert Blunden), who lived at Fr Ryan’s Fawkner North presbytery. Br Innocent Schofield The Australian Christian Brothers have accepted a complaint from a man, now elderly, that he was sexually abused by Brother Aloysius Innocent Schofield at St  Augustine’s boys’ orphanage in Geelong, Victoria, in the late 1940s. Schofield adopted the “religious” name Aloysius Innocent when he joined the order (there have been “saints” with those names). Brother A.I. Schofield rose to become the principal of Christian Brothers schools in Queensland: Christian Brothers College in Warwick (1952-57); St Mary’s College in Toowoomba (1964-69); and St Edmund’s College in Ipswich (1972-77). Fr Peter Searson In 1997 the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese finally removed Father Peter Lloyd Searson from parish work, following years of complaints about him touching and sexually harassing boys, girls and women. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Bill Shanahan, Victoria, 1960s Broken Rites is researching Fr William Shanahan regarding one of his earliest parishes — St Joseph’s parish, Warragul (100km east of Melbourne), in the 1960s, when this priest was aged in his thirties. Fr Manny Spiteri, Sale diocese, Victoria The Catholic Church has settled a sex-abuse complaint involving a Maltese-born priest, Father Emanuel Joseph Spiteri, who spent 35 years ministering in the Sale diocese in the state of Victoria.  See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Patrick Stephenson, Jesuit Broken Rites is researching this priest, who worked at Xavier College, a Jesuit school for boys in Melbourne, in the 1970s and 1980s. Fr John Stockdale, Victoria Father John Peregrine Stockdale used to molest young boys in his parishes in the Sandhurst diocese in northern Victoria. On 31 December 1995, Stockdale died while celebrating New Year’s Eve in a sex-cubicle at a males-only club in Melbourne. See the Broken Rites story here. Br Loyola Sullivan, Sydney Broken Rtes is researching Marist Brother “Loyola” Sullivan, who worked at St Vincent’s Boys Home in Westmead, Sydney, in 1943-1948. He is still remembered by former residents of this institution. This Brother Loyola also taught at Marcellin College, Randwick. Fr Terence L. Sullivan, Sydney, 1960s This Father Terry Sullivan (not to be confused with other priests with a similar name) had numerous victims among boys in their early teens. Many have complained to Broken Rites and to the Catholic Church’s Professional Standards Office in New South Wales. The church has made civil settlements with a number of these victims who demonstrated that Sullivan (and the church’s harbouring of him) had disrupted their adolescent and adult development. Fr Terence Sullivan’s parishes included: Kingsgrove (Our Lady of Fatima parish) in the early 1960s; Penrith (St Nicholas’s parish) and Asquith (St Patrick’s parish) in the mid-1960s and Gosford (St Patrick’s) in 1967.  Sullivan targeted boys at Catholic schools, including De La Salle College at Kingsgrove, St Leo’s College at Wahroonga (this was then was a Christian Brothers boys’ school) and St Edward’s Christian Brothers school at Gosford. He left the ministry “on leave” about 1968 and never returned. Fr Joseph Sultana, Queensland A former altar boy has launched a civil lawsuit against the Catholic Church, alleging years of abuse by a priest, Father Joseph Emmanuel Sultana, in the Australian Catholic diocese of Cairns. See more here. Br Laurie Sweeney An order of Catholic priests, the Salesians of Don Bosco, confirmed in 2004 that it has made a civil settlement with two victims of Salesian Brother Laurence Sweeney — a boy and his sister, who have complained about being sexually abused by Sweeney at a Salesian club in Oakleigh, Melbourne in 1975. Br Brian Mark Thomas The Christian Brothers have settled a complaint about Brother Brian Thomas. This Brother (born 1938) adopted the religious name “Brother Mark Thomas” when he joined the order. He worked in various Catholic institutions including: at St Augustine’s orphanage in Geelong VIC in 1969; at schools in Box Hill VIC, Albury NSW and Balmain NSW in the 1970s; at Chatswood NSW, Strathfield NSW, Toorak VIC and Canberra in the 1980s; and at Waverley NSW in the 1990s. Br Aubrey Tobin In separate incidents, two men committed suicide in the year 2000 after complaining that their lives had been damaged after sexual abuse by Brother Aubrey Tobin while they were pupils at the Marists’ Assumption College in Kilmore, Victoria, in the mid-1980s. The Marist Brothers head office has confirmed that the two complaints were made. See the Broken Rites story here. Monsignor Maurice Tully Broken Rites is investigating this priest who had a long career (until 1975) in the Armidale diocese in northern New South Wales. While working in a parish, he also acted as the diocese’s vicar-general (chief administrator) and this high status protected him from complaints. See more from Broken Rites here. Br Frank Webster The Christian Brothers Australian administration has accepted complaints from victims who were abused, when they were young boys, by Christian Brother Aloysius Francis Webster (also known as Frank Webster or “Lou” Webster) while he was  the superintendent (principal) at St Augustine’s orphanage, Geelong, Victoria, from 1954 to 1959. See the Broken Rites story here. Fr Adrian Wenting A number of ex-students have complained that Father Adrian Wenting committed offences of indecency against them at the Salesian College boarding school in Brooklyn Park, South Australia, where he was the principal until 1979. Wenting also worked at the Boys Town residential institution in Engadine NSW and at Salesian College Chadstone in Melbourne. Westmead Boys’ Home, NSW Broken Rites is investigating complaints from former inmates of St Vincent’s Boys’ Home, Westmead, in Sydney’s west. This orphanage was operated by the Marist Brothers until it closed in 1991. Broken Rites possesses a printed list, compiled by the Marists, of all Brothers who worked at this institution. The Westmead site is now a campus of the University of Western Sydney. Fr Dennis Whelan, NSW Broken Rites is researching Father Dennis R. Whelan, who ministered in the Bathurst Catholic diocese in north-western New South Wales, notably St Brigid’s parish in Dubbo and St Mary’s in Dubbo North. Dennis Whelan’s middle name was either Redmond or Raymond. Fr Ray Whitehouse After action by Broken Rites, the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese has apologised to (and signed a settlement with) a man who complained that, as an altar boy, he was sexually assaulted by Father Raymond Whitehouse on several Sundays after Mass. See more here. Fr John Whiting Broken Rites is researching Father John Thomas Larmer Whiting. Originally a member of the Redemptorist order, he founded a small Australian society of priests and brothers called the “Confraternity of Christ the Priest”. He established a small seminary at Scoresby, in Melbourne’s east. A man who inquired about joining the order in 1981 (aged 19) says that, during the interview, Father John Whiting inspected the young man’s genitals. Another young aspirant says that he was required to bathe naked, with Fr Jack  Whiting, in a pool. In later years, Whiting’s society also provided seminary training in Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales. Fr Murray Wilson In 2006, after action by Broken Rites, the Vincentian Fathers’ Australian office apologized to a Victorian man for a serious sexual assault committed by Fr Murray Joseph Wilson in the 1970s, when the victim was aged 13. See our story here. Bert Zeelen, sacristan, Adelaide cathedral Broken Rites is researching Hubertus Zeelen (a Dutch name), who was the full-time sacristan, caretaker and chief altar-server at St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Adelaide, in the 1960s and 1970s. He was in charge of altar-boys. He lived in a dwelling at the cathedral. Section C: Current court cases Here are some examples of cases that are currently scheduled to come up in the courts: Armidale court, NSW, re an ex-priest A former Catholic priest (now aged 59), who used to work in parishes in north-western New South Wales (comprising the Armidale Diocese), appeared in Armidale Local Court on 18 October 2012 on multiple child-sex charges dating back to two or three decades ago. The case will come up in court again in early 2013 for a further mention in the next step in the prosecution process. For legal reasons, the court prohibited any publishing of the man’s name. See more from Broken Rites here. Brian Dennis Cairns After beginning in the early 1970s as a Christian Brother, Brian Cairns worked as a lay teacher (“Mister” Cairns) in Catholic schools in Queensland. In 1985 he was jailed for sex-crimes against boys. In October 2012, after more of his former male pupils contacted police, the Brisbane Magistrates Court ordered that Brian Cairns must face a judge in the Brisbane District Court (in 2013) on multiple charges involving alleged offences against these additional boys. Fr John Denham Father John Sidney Denham (of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese, New South Wales), who is in jail for  child-sex crimes, is scheduled to be charged again in Newcastle  Court in early 2013 with offences against more boys. See a background article by Broken Rites here. Fr Finian Egan This Catholic priest, who belongs to the Broken Bay diocese in Sydney’s north, appeared in court in 2012, charged with multiple sexual offences against young persons, allegedly committed in the 1970s and 1980s. Further court proceedings are sheduled for 2013. See more here. Fr Lewis Fenton A  retired priest, Father Lewis Fenton, aged 81 (from the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, New South Wales), has become the second Catholic clergyman in Australia charged with concealing someone else’s child-sex crimes. On 4 January 2013, Fr Fenton was ordered to appear in a magistrates court on a later date. See more here. Br John Gaven Brother John Gaven, of the Vincentian religious order, is awaiting court proceedings in Sydney in 2013 regarding sexual offences that were allegedly committed when he worked at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst, NSW. See more here. Br Bill Houston, Victoria In the 1960s, Christian Brother William Stuart Houston worked at St Augustine’s orphanage, Geelong, Victoria. In 2010, he appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court and was ordered to stand trial at the Victorian County Court regarding incidents of buggery and indecent assault, allegedly committed while he was at St Augustine’s in the 1960s. The  County Court process (indictment number Y.03305021) has not yet been completed. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Jim Jennings James Patrick Jennings was once a Catholic priest in the Vincentian order. In 2012 a Victorian magistrate ordered Jennings to stand trial in the Victorian County Court (in 2013) on child-sex charges relating to when Jennings was a priest working at St Vincent’s College (a boys’ boarding school) in Bendigo, Victoria, in the 1960s. Police investigations (under Senior Sergeant Grant Morris, of Bendigo Police) are continuing. See more Victorian material from Broken Rites here, plus some New South Wales background  here. Ex-Brother Edward Mamo In 2013 the Victorian  County Court is scheduled to announce the details of its sentence for former religious Brother, Edward Mamo, who has pleaded guilty to sexual  offences, which he committed in the late 1970s and early 1980s against boys at Monivae College, a Catholic secondary school in Hamilton, western Victoria. The investigation is continuing, by detectives at the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Unit in Warrnambool, telephone 03 5560 1333. See more from Broken Rites here. A Marist Brother in Newcastle  court New South Wales detectives have charged a retired Marist Brother with having indecently assaulted two students at a school in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, during the 1960s and 1970s. He has been ordered to appear in Newcastle Local Court in 2013.  The detectives (from Strike Force Georgiana, at Charlestown police station, Lake Macquarie) are continuing their investigations and expect to lay further charges. Fr David O’Hearn Legal proceedings are scheduled in the New South Wales District Court for Father David Anthony O’Hearn, of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese in New South Wales, who is charged with child-sex offences. See more from Broken Rites here. Fr David Rapson, Salesian Fathers David Edwin Rapson (born 30 July 1953), who used to be a Catholic priest (in the Salesian religious order), appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in November 2012, charged with child-sex offences allegedly committed when Fr Rapson was a teacher at Salesian College “Rupertswood”, in Sunbury (in Melbourne’s north-west). A magistrate ordered Rapson to face a trial in the Victorian County Court (in 2013). The Victoria Police investigation is continuing (being conducted by detectives of the Sexual Crimes Squad, Flinders Street, Melbourne). See more from Broken Rites here. Fr Brian Spillane In the 1970s and 1980s Father Brian Joseph Spillane was a priest in the Vincentian Fathers religious order in New South Wales and Queensland. In the Sydney District Court in 2012, Spillane (then aged 69) was sentenced to nine years jail (with a non-parole period of five years) for indecently assaulting three girls aged between six and seventeen. He is also facing future court proceedings regarding alleged offences against boys. See more here. Section D: Cases where church people failed to help the police Here are some examples, researched by Broken Rites: Fr Tom Brennan, Newcastle, NSW In August 2012, in what is believed to be the first such prosecution in Australia, Father Thomas Brennan (former vicar-general of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese) was charged with failing to report the alleged child-sex crimes of another priest who was under Brennan’s supervision. Brennan was ordered to appear in court on 25 September 2012 but he failed to appear and he died five days later. See more from Broken Rites here. Also see an earlier conviction of Brennan here. Monsignor Patrick Cotter Cotter was formerly the vicar-general (chief administrator) of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales. In 1995, detectives discovered that, 20 years earlier, Cotter knew that one of his priests, Father Vincent Gerard Ryan, was sexually assaulting boys in parishes. According to a letter written by Cotter in 1974, Cotter admitted covering up the crimes. Cotter wrote: “I decided to do nothing [about Ryan’s crimes].” This meant that Cotter became complicit in Vince Ryan’s continuing crimes. In 1995-6, police investigated Cotter with a view to charging him with the crime of misprision of a felony — that is, wilfully concealing a serious crime committed by another person. However, as Cotter was aged 82 when police found this letter in 1995, the prosecution did not proceed. See our Cotter story here. The Monsignor John Day case Church people, including a police sergeant, discouraged the Victoria Police from prosecuting Monsignor John Day, who sexually abused many boys and girls in the Mildura parish. See the Broken Rites story here. The “Father F” cover-up Bishop Henry Joseph Kennedy administered the Armidale diocese in northern New South Wales in the 1980s, assisted by his deputy, Monsignor Francis Joseph (Frank) Ryan. This pair protected a certain priest (Father F) after receiving complaints about him committing child-sex offences. Furthermore, Kennedy and Ryan later arranged for Father F to transfer to parishes in the Parramatta diocese in western Sydney, thereby giving him access to additional children. According to a church document, Father F has admitted that he indeed committed sexual acts upon children. The cover-up continued for 30 years until it was exposed by the media in 2012. Read more here. The Father Ridsdale case Catholic church authorities in western Victoria knew that Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale was indecently assaulting children but the church continued giving him access to more victims, until victims (not the church) finally brought him to justice. See the Broken Rites story here. Section E: Court cases ending with no conviction Sometimes, for various legal reasons, a court case might fail to result in a conviction. For example: Fr Bernie Connell In November 1995, news media outlets in southern New South Wales reported  that a Local Court magistrate committed Father Bernard Connell to stand trial on charges of sexual offences allegedly committed against boys. However, the subsequent trial proceedings did not result in a conviction. Born in 1938, Father Connell was ordained in 1963 as a priest of the Wagga Wagga diocese in southern New South Wales. His postings from early 1964 to late 1991 included: parishes at Junee and Albury in the 1960s; South Wagga Wagga parish in the early 1970s; working as a chaplain at army bases in Puckapunyal (Victoria) and Holdsworthy (NSW) in the 1970s; Lockhart parish in 1978; Albury and Tocumwal parishes in the 1980s; and Leeton parish in 1990-91. In early 1992, he left the Wagga Wagga diocese to minister in the Pacific nation of Kiribati for several years, after which he returned to New South Wales to live at a private address, with no further parish postings. Fr Dennis Corrigan On 9 February 2012 Father Dennis John Corrigan, 68, who worked in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, north of Sydney, was acquitted in the New South Wales District Court on charges of indecent assault on a boy. See more from Broken Rites here. Br John Coswello Christian Brother John Francis Coswello, then 70, was sentenced to jail on 22 June 2009 after a jury found him guilty of committing sexual offences against a 12-year-old boy in a Melbourne orphanage. Later, the Victorian Court of Appeal granted him a re-trial, at which another jury (in October 2010) found him not guilty.  See more here. Br Brendan Crawford, Passionist Order A Catholic religious brother, Vincent Crawford (a.k.a. Brother “Brendan” Crawford), of the Passionist Order, appeared in court in 2009, charged with sexual offences against a girl in the late 1970s. The charges were withdrawn after the court was told that Crawford (aged 77 when charged) was medically unfit to undergo the court proceedings. See more here. Fr Peter Dwyer In the New South Wales District Court on 9 May 2011, a jury found Father Peter William Dwyer not guilty of alleged sexual offences, between 1977 and 1992, against four students who attended St Stanislaus College, Bathurst NSW (where Fr Dwyer had been a music teacher and later a headmaster). Fr Ray Garchow Raymond Garchow became a religious brother in the St John of God order in 1964, aged 17, and was upgraded to a priest in 1987, aged 40. In New South Wales in the early 1980s, he worked at “Kendall Grange” boarding institution for educationally disabled boys in Morisset, north of Sydney. In 2006, after he had been living and ministering around Sydney for several years, the Federal Court of Australia ordered that Garchow be extradited to face charges of child-sex abuse in New Zealand, where he had worked at an institution (Marylands special school for educationally disabled boys) in Christchurch in the 1970s. A trial was scheduled for Garchow in Christchurch. On 23 July 2008, the New Zealand prosecutors decided not to proceed with the trial for several reasons: Garchow, aged 61, was too ill; furthermore, one of the two complainants was also unwell; and the second complainant had trouble with a disability, which made the prospect of a trial difficult. The prosecutors entered a permanent stay of proceedings. Garchow’s counsel said afterwards that Garchow maintains his innocence. See our story about the extradition proceedings here. Br Bill Houston On 17 June 1997, a magistrate ordered that Christian Brother William Stuart Houston, then aged 58, should stand trial in the Victorian County Court on charges relating to a twelve-year-old boy at St Augustine’s orphanage, Geelong, in 1969-70 (reported in the Melbourne Herald Sun, 18 June 1997). This trial has not yet been held.  See more here. Fr Jim Jennings James Patrick Jennings was once a Catholic priest in the Vincentian order. In  the Sydney District Court, in July 2010, he was charged with indecent assault on four boys (aged about 12) at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst NSW, during 1961. On 5 August 2010 the jury returned a verdict of “not guilty” on all charges See more here. Br Bill Lebler In 1951, aged 29, William John Lebler became among the first Australian-born recruits to join the St John of God Brothers, taking his vows at the order’s “Kendall Grange” institution for intellectually handicapped boys at Morisset, north of Sydney. He later worked with SJOG in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. In 2003, prosecutors sought to extradite him from Australia to face trial in New Zealand on child-abuse charges there, dating back as far as 1955. However, a Sydney magistrate released William Lebler because of his age (82 years) and health and because of the delay in reporting his alleged offences. See our story about the extradition proceedings here. Br John Maguire By July 2004, Marist Brother John Dennis Maguire had faced eight jury trials in the New South Wales District Court, charged with multiple sexual offences involving six boys at St Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill, Sydney.  In all, he faced 17 counts of assaulting boys aged between 11 and 13 while he was the year 7 dormitory and form master (in charge of fifty boarders) in the early 1980s. Maguire had a bedroom adjoining the dormitory. The alleged offences ranged from indecently touching the boys through to anal and oral penetration. Unlike in many other similar cases, Brother John Maguire (born 13 December 1943) was not required to face his accusers jointly in a single trial. The church lawyers succeeded in obtaining a separate jury for each complainant, so that each jury was unaware of the other charges. Two juries failed to agree on a verdict and were discharged. The other six juries each returned a verdict of “Not Guilty”. Despite this, any complainants are still able to take civil action against the Marist Brothers regarding Brother Maguire. See “We saw it coming, say ex-students” article in the 2 July 2004 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald. Br Eddie Mamo, Sacred Heart order A Sydney newspaper reported that the Bankstown Local Court on 23 August 1994 dismissed two charges of aggravated indecent assault that had been laid against Edward Mamo, then aged 49. Mamo had been a religious Brother in the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart order, and was associated with the Nguon Song Group Homes, which provided accommodation for Indo-Chinese teenage males in Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown area. (In the 1970s and 1980s, Brothers in the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart worked as support staff — such as dormitory supervisors — at prominent Australian boarding schools operated by the MSC order, including Chevalier College in Bowral, New South Wales, and Monivae College in Hamilton, Victoria.) See more here. Fr Hugh Edward Murray This Catholic priest (from the Vincentian order) appeared in court in Sydney in 2010, charged with indecently assaulting boys in the 1960s and ’70s. In July 2011, a judge granted Murray a permanent stay because of his advanced age (81 years) and health problems. See more here. Br John Parker Various news media outlets reported that Christian Brother John David Parker appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 22 March 1995, charged with sexual assault of a nine-year-old boy in Grade 4 at Parade Christian Brothers College junior school in Alphington (in Melbourne’s inner north-east) in 1958. Brother Parker contested the charge. Magistrate Phillip Goldberg committed Brother Parker (then aged 60) for trial and listed the matter to go to a judge in the Melbourne County Court for 19 June 1995. However, the County Court case did not proceed. The complainant was satisfied with having succeeded in getting his allegation aired in the Magistrates Court. In the Christian Brothers, Parker adopted the religious name John “Neri” Parker (there was once a Saint Neri) and was listed as Brother J.N. Parker. Brother Parker has also taught at other Catholic schools in Victoria, including Ballarat (St Patrick’s primary school, Drummond Street) in the 1970s and Mill Park (St Francis of Assisi primary school) in Melbourne’s north in the 1990s. He also taught with the Christian Brothers in Tasmania. Fr Phil Robson In early 2010, a Sydney magistrate ordered Father Philip John Robson (a member of the Vincentian order of Catholic priests) to stand trial at the Sydney District Court, charged with five sex offences against a 15-year-old boy who was a pupil at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst, New South Wales, in 1991. Robson was accused of one count of attempting to have sexual intercourse with the boy in circumstances of aggravation, and four counts of aggravated indecent assault. On 14 September 2010, a District Court jury found Robson not guilty of all charges. See more here. Br Lambert Wise, Adelaide A South Australian court ruled in 2008 that an elderly former Christian Brother, Francis Lambert Wise, was medically unfit to stand trial on alleged incidents of child-sexual abuse, dating back to 1964 and 1965. However, in 2009 a judge held special hearings, enabling two of Wise’s former pupils to have their allegations aired in court. Thus, the South Australian public was able to learn of the allegations. See more from Broken Rites here. Section F: Lay teachers in church schools The above lists (Sections A to E) on this website all relate to priests or religious brothers, as distinct from lay teachers. Many victims have contacted Broken Rites about offences committed by lay teachers in Catholic schools or school youth camps. The teachers’ cases are too numerous to be all listed on this website. Here are just a few examples to demonstrate the range of cases: Yvo Gulien Cleyman, at Gosford, NSW, 1970s In the New South Wales District Court at Gosford (New South Wales) on 20 April 2004, Yvo Gulien Cleyman (then aged 59) was sentenced to a maximum of six years’ jail over a series of sex offences against two schoolboys in the late 1970s. The case was reported next day in the Central Coast Herald (and the preliminary proceedings had been reported in the Central Coast Express on 26 February 2003). The boys, aged 13 and 14, were attending  St Edward’s Christian Brothers School in East Gosford (north of Sydney), where Yvo Gulien Cleyman was a lay teacher of languages and social studies in the late 1970s. The court was told that, on school camps, on drives to isolated places and out fishing, he forced anal intercourse on the boys as well as forcing them to give and receive oral sex. Cleyman pleaded guilty to six counts of buggery and two counts of indecent assault on the two victims. When charged in 2003, Yvo Gulien Cleyman’s address was given in court as Buccan, Queensland. He was extradited to New South Wales for the court proceedings. After the conviction, the Christian Brothers headquarters in New South Wales began having mediation meetings with victims of Cleyman. John Coogan, teacher, Geelong, Victoria John Patrick Coogan, then aged 61, was sentenced in 1994 to five years jail (minimum of three years) after pleading guilty to seventeen charges of indent assault of boys while he was a lay teacher at St Joseph’s College (Christian Brothers) in Geelong. Outside the court, one of the victims said the St Joseph’s College administration had known that Coogan  was a child-molester but it did nothing about him. Mark Dean, northern Victoria Mark Christopher Dean, a Catholic lay teacher, pretended to be a priest during role-playing sessions with children while he sexually abused them, the Bendigo Magistrates Court was told in July 1992. Dean, then aged 33, of Rochester and Bendigo, who taught in north Victorian Catholic schools, pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting eight schoolboys in three towns during the 1980s. Dean was sentenced to a six-months suspended jail term. The victims’ families told police that Dean had been protected by the church authorities. John Gahan, lay teacher, NSW On 30 October 2007 in the New South Wales District Court, John Stephen Gahan was sentenced to 13 months jail (with a non-parole period of six months), on  three charges of indecent assault of a boy, aged 11 to 13, while Gahan was a lay teacher at St Mary’s Catholic parish primary school in Scone (in the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese), in the late 1970s. Gahan befriended the boy’s family. Gahan admitted that the abuse (masturbating the boy) occurred on a number of occasions during two years — in Gahan’s car and on overnight trips. The victim said in his impact statement that, as a child, he did not understand what was happening — “only that here was a man that took an interest in my future and this was a small sacrifice to maintain his friendship”. The victim said that the abuse caused problems in his adult life, including in his marriage. Mato Karapandzk, cathedral caretaker On 11 March 2008 in the South Australian District Court, a 37-year-old woman gained justice for sexual abuse that she experienced while she was a pupil at Adelaide’s St Aloysius Catholic girls’ school.  At age 12 in the early 1980s, the girl was told to wheel a disabled elderly nun over to the Adelaide cathedral (opposite the school) for church services. There, the girl was befriended by Mato Karapandzk (then over 50), a Croatian-born caretaker at the cathedral. Over the next five years, he sexually abused the girl in and around the cathedral building, “under the noses of the cathedral staff and the school”, sometimes giving her $20 after the abuse, the court was told. He continued as the cathedral caretaker until the victim came forward with her complaint in 2004. Karapandzk, aged 77 at sentencing, was given a nine-year jail sentence (with four years behind bars before parole). Willi Kovac, sports teacher In Melbourne County Court in December 2005, Kovac (then aged 73) was jailed for a maximum of  nine and half years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 5½ years, after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting three  boys (aged between nine and fourteen) in the 1960s and 1970s. German-born Kovac was an athletics coach at Melbourne’s Xavier College and Marcellin College and other Catholic schools and worked as a co-ordinator at summer camps for Catholic school children. Judge Pamela Jenkins said that, since the offences, Kovac’s three victims had struggled with life, including drug and alcohol abuse and relationship breakdowns, and had under-achieved in their work-life. These three boys were not Kovac’s only victims. He also had victims from other Catholic schools. Some victims have contacted Broken Rites. According to information given in court in 2005, Kovac was also jailed in 1970 for indecent assault. One prominent Catholic school sacked Kovac for his behaviour but it then breached its duty of care by allowing him to work at other Catholic schools, putting more boys in danger. Paul John Lyons, Canberra In 2006 and 2007, Daramalan College, a Catholic co-educational school in Canberra (run by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart), finally began making civil settlements with victims of a former teacher, Paul John Lyons. Lyons taught at Daramalan from 1989 to 2000. He took dozens of students to his home overnight or away on sporting trips. In 2000, police caught up with Lyons who admitted indecently assaulting a 15-year-old schoolboy. Police charged Lyons but, a few days later, he committed suicide. His police interview indicated that Lyons had many other victims, meaning that more charges would have been likely. John Marsden, solicitor, school sports coach John Marsden was originally a trainee for the Catholic priesthood but he left the seminary and later became a prominent lawyer and president of the New South Wales Law Society.  In a crimes compensation case on 6 July 2001, NSW District Court judge Ken Taylor found that, “on the balance of probabilities”, Marsden had sexually abused an eight-year-old schoolboy in the late 1960s when Marsden was a swimming and football coach at a Catholic school, St John’s, Campbelltown, in Sydney’s south-west. The court was told that, on three occasions, the boy was forced to engage in mutual genital fondling with Marsden and on the third occasion he was forced to perform oral sex on Marsden. The boy then complained to school authorities but was not believed over the respected local solicitor and former trainee priest, the victim told the court. The victim took his allegations against Marsden to Mr Justice Wood’s royal commission into corruption in 1996, but Marsden was never charged by police. The victim then began a civil action in the NSW Supreme Court, but said he was “threatened with financial ruin” by the rich and powerful lawyer.  On legal advice, he sought victim’s compensation instead.  Judge Taylor awarded the plaintiff the then maximum amount of $40,000 in victim’s compensation, plus $5078 for psychiatrists’ fees and $8000 in legal costs. This finding could not be revealed in 2001 because it was subject to a court suppression order.  Marsden died in May 2006, aged 64, and the Weekend Australian published the court documents on 3 June 2006. Former Test cricket umpire Steve Randell He was jailed in 1999 for sexual offences against young girls while he taught at Marist College in Burnie, Tasmania, in the early 1980s (after the school became co-educational). Randell also taught at St Virgil’s College in Hobart. He also allegedly had male victims.  See our article about a different offender at Marist College here. St Mark’s College, South Australia Jenny Christall, who was an education support officer at St Mark’s College in Port Pirie (South Australia) in 2001, learned that a male religious education teacher, Sunil Francis Clark, was sexually abusing female students. Mrs Christall alerted the school administration and the Port Pirie Catholic diocese but, she says, these authorities failed to contact police. Ms Christall contacted the police herself but this meant losing her job because of a workplace confidentiality agreement.  After this, she says, she was banned from working at more than 100 Catholic schools in South Australia. The male teacher, Sunil Clark, was charged in the South Australian District Court in 2006 with sexual offences against two schoolgirls, including two charges of unlawful sexual intercourse by a teacher. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison, with a non-parole period of three years. Stephen Stockdale-Hall, Adelaide In the South Australian Supreme Court in December 2005, Stephen John Stockdale-Hall (aged 56) was sentenced to 10 years’ jail (with parole after eight years) after admitting that he sexually abused nine boys, aged between eight and 16 years, between 1977 and 1989, while he was a Catholic schools lay teacher. His crimes started while he was a teacher at Adelaide’s Blackfriars Priory School and went on for a decade after he resigned when he continued to take students on camping expeditions. Stockdale-Hall also encouraged some of his Catholic school victims to drink alcohol and take drugs. See our story here. Darren Tector, former lay teacher In 1994, Darren John Tector was jailed for sexual offences against boys while he was a teacher at a Catholic primary school (Our Lady of Lourdes) at Seven Hills, near Parramatta, west of Sydney. He was jailed again in 2007 (aged 41) for using the internet and a telephone to procure a child (a 12-year-old boy) for sexual activity. See our story here. The Broken Rites database contains many similar cases of teachers in church schools. Some of these are teachers of “religion”, which indicates hypocrisy as well as a crime.

Philippines Begins To Dismantle The Shackles of Catholic Medievalism

Passage of contraceptives law in Philippines shows times have changed for Catholic church

Article by HRVOJE HRANJSKI , Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines – Twenty-six years after Roman Catholic leaders helped his mother marshal millions of Filipinos in an uprising that ousted a dictator, President Benigno Aquino III picked a fight with the church over contraceptives and won a victory that bared the bishops’ worst nightmare: They no longer sway the masses.

Aquino last month signed the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 quietly and without customary handshakes and photographs to avoid controversy. The law that provides state funding for contraceptives for the poor pitted the dominant Catholic Church in an epic battle against the popular Aquino and his followers.

A couple with links to the church filed a motion Wednesday to stop implementation of the law, and more petitions are expected. Still, there is no denying that Aquino’s approval of the legislation has chipped away at the clout the church has held over Filipinos, and marked the passing of an era in which it was taboo to defy the church and priests.

Catholic leaders consider the law an attack on the church’s core values — the sanctity of life — saying that contraceptives promote promiscuity and destroy life. Aquino and his allies see the legislation as a way to address how the poor — roughly a third of the country’s 94 million people — manage the number of children they have and provide for them. Nearly half of all pregnancies in the Philippines are unwanted, according to the U.N. Population Fund, and a third of those end up aborted in a country where abortion remains illegal.

Rampant poverty, overcrowded slums, and rising homelessness and crime are main concerns that neither the church nor Aquino’s predecessors have successfully tackled.

“If the church can provide milk, diapers and rice, then go ahead, let’s make more babies,” said Giselle Labadan, a 30-year-old roadside vendor. “But there are just too many people now, too many homeless people, and the church doesn’t help to feed them.”

Labadan said she grew up in a God-fearing family but has defied the church’s position against contraceptives for more than a decade because her five children, age 2 to 12, were already far too many for her meager income. Her husband, a former army soldier, is jobless.

She said that even though she has used most types of contraceptives, she still considers herself among the faithful. “I still go to church and pray. It’s a part of my life,” Labadan said.

“I have prayed before not to have another child, but the condom worked better,” she said.

The law now faces a legal challenge in the Supreme Court after the couple filed the motion, which seems to cover more ideological than legal grounds. One of the authors of the law, Rep. Edcel Lagman, said Thursday that he was not worried by the petition and expected more to follow.

“We are prepared for this,” he said. “We are certain that the law is completely constitutional and will surmount any attack on or test of its constitutionality.”

Over the decades, moral and political authority of the church in the Philippines is perceived to have waned with the passing of one its icons, Cardinal Jaime Sin. He shaped the role of the church during the country’s darkest hours after dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law starting in 1972 by championing the cause of civil advocacy, human rights and freedoms. Sin’s action mirrored that of his strong backer, Pope John Paul II, who himself challenged communist rulers in Eastern Europe.

Three years after Aquino’s father, Benigno Aquino Sr., a senator opposing Marcos, was gunned down on the Manila airport tarmac in 1983, Sin persuaded Aquino’s widow, Corazon, to run for president. When massive election cheating by Marcos was exposed, Sin went on Catholic-run Radio Veritas in February 1986 to summon millions of people to support military defectors and the Aquino-led opposition. Marcos fled and Aquino, a deeply religious woman, was sworn in as president.

Democracy was restored, but the country remained chaotic and mired in nearly a dozen coup attempts. The economy stalled, poverty persisted and the jobless were leaving in droves for better-paying jobs abroad as maids, teachers, nurses and engineers. After Aquino stepped down, the country elected its first and only Protestant president, Fidel Ramos. He, too, opposed the church on contraceptives and released state funds for family planning methods.

Catholic bishops pulled out all the stops in campaigning against Ramos’ successor, popular movie actor Joseph Estrada, a hero of the impoverished masses who made little attempt to keep down his reputation for womanizing, drinking and gambling.

But few heeded the church’s advice. Estrada was elected with the largest victory margin in Philippine history. Halfway through his six-year presidency, in January 2001, he was confronted with another “people power” revolt, backed by political opponents and the military, and was forced to resign.

His successor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, styled herself as a devout Catholic and sought to placate the church by abolishing the death penalty and putting brakes on the contraceptives law, which languished in Congress during her nine years in power.

It mattered little. Arroyo’s mismanagement and corruption scandals set the stage for Aquino’s election on a promise to rid the Philippines of graft, fix the economy and lift millions out of poverty. The scion of the country’s democracy icon took power several years after Sin’s death, but it was a different era in which the church was battered by scandals of sexual misconduct of priests and declining family values.

The latest defeat of the church “can further weaken its moral authority at a time when this is most badly needed in many areas, including defense of a whole range of family values,” said the Rev. John J. Carroll, founding chairman of the Jesuit-run John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues. He said he wondered how many Catholics have been “turned off” by incessant sermons and prayers led by the church against the contraceptives law, and how much it contributed to rising anticlericalism and the erosion of church authority.

“People today are more practical,” said Labadan, the street vendor. “In the old days, people feared that if you defy the church, it will be the end of the world.”

Associated Press writers Jim Gomez and Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.

Related articles

• New law points to Philippine church’s waning sway (sfgate.com)
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• New Law Points to Philippine Church’s Waning Sway (abcnews.go.com)
• New contraceptives law points to Philippine church’s waning sway (washingtontimes.com)
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1000 Years of Carnage & Barbarity in The Name of Christ

1000 Years of Carnage & Barbarity in the name of Christ

Kenneth Humphreys

10th Century Obscenities Vile Princes of the Papacy “Popes maimed &         were maimed, killed & were killed… Without question, these pontiffs         constitute the most despicable body of leaders, clerical or lay, in history.         They were, frankly, barbarians. Ancient Rome had nothing to rival them         in rottenness.” – Peter de Rosa (Vicars of Christ, p48)          John XII (955-964). Born from an incestuous          relationship  between Pope Sergio III and his 13-year-old daughter          Marozie. John, in         turn, took his mother as his own mistress. Pope at 18, he turned the            Lateran  into a brothel. He was accused by a synod of “sacrilege,            simony,  perjury, murder, adultery and incest” and was temporarily          deposed.  He took his revenge on opponents          by hacking off limbs. He was murdered            by an enraged husband who caught him having sex with his wife.	11th Century Horror Church lords over ignorant squalor of millions 1095 – Pope Urban II          calls upon the Franks to invade the more civilized Muslim world. Begins        five centuries of warfare. “Let those who have         hitherto been robbers now become soldiers.” – Urban II addresses his gangsters.   1009: Rivalry from Islam prompts         eastern churches to break with idolatry. This ‘iconoclasm’ begins breach         with idol-worshipping Catholic west. Centuries of bloodshed ensue. 1079: The Council of Rome:         Persecution of Berengarius & his followers who cannot stomach the         dogma of ‘transmutation of bread & wine into Christ.’ Svyatoslav’s Miscellany, 1076. God’s work – a serious business.	12th Century Criminality Christian Church ally of murderous kings & rogue      princes “Warrior Monks”         – Muslim heads catapulted into the besieged city of Antioch by Christian         Knights (Illumination from Les Histoires d’Outremer by         William of  Tyre 12th century, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris).   1118: Christian fanatics          captured Saragossa; the beginning of the decline of Muslim civilization          in Spain.          1184 Council of Verona         condemns Waldensians for witchcraft. The charge is later extended to condemn         heretics.	13th Century Wickedness Vile Crusaders Plunder & Murder for God 1204 Christian crusaders         sack & ruin greatest Christian city, Constantinople. 1209 Pope Innocent III         launches Albigensian Crusade against Christian Cathars of southern France.         7000 massacred in La Madeleine Church alone. 1211 Burning of Waldenses         heretics at Strasbourg begins several centuries of persecution.            German Teutonic Knights         butcher their way through the Baltic lands, savage Catholic Poles &         Orthodox Russians. 1231: Pope Gregory IX authorizes         Inquisition for dealing with heretics. 1277 Pope John XXI, alarmed          by rumors of pagan heresy among “scholars        of arts in the faculty of theology” pressurizes Stephen Tempier,        Bishop of Paris, to prohibit 219 philosophical and theological theses.      The “Condemnations of Paris” is the first of 16 lists of censorship.
14th Century Catastrophe Church hostility to medicine allows plague to decimate Europe Burning of the Jews of Cologne – blamed by Christians for the         Black Death (Liber Chronicarum Mundi). World Domination? “We declare, say,         define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation         of every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff.” – Pope Boniface VIII, Bull Unun Sanctum, 1302 1311-12: Ecumenical Council         of Vienne. It authorises the brutal suppression of the Knights Templar         (mercenaries of the church who have outlived their usefulness).       1316-1334: Pope John XXII,         world’s richest man and first pontiff to promote theory of witchcraft.         Sanctions bull allowing heresy charges to be brought against dead people.         In 1320 he instructs French Inquisition to confiscate all property belonging         to blasphemers or dabblers in black arts. 1300s.  Glowing eyes and nocturnal behaviour of the cat interpreted by the Church as clear proof of the hapless moggy’s diabolic affinity. Wholesale trapping and burning of cats allowed free rein to the spread of the flee-carrying rat. Subsequently, Europe’s population was decimated  by the plague. 1347-50: The Black Death sweeps         across Europe, killing one-third of the population. “Jews were burnt all         the way from the Mediterranean into Germany… under torture confessing         to have spread the plague by poisoning wells… the poison made from the         skin of a basilisk (a kind of mythical serpent)…” – N. Cantor (In the Wake of the Plague)	15th Century          Malevolence Tortured Bodies by Sadists of the Lord	16th Century Mayhem Pogroms & civil wars in the name of Jesus “My advice…               is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who               are able toss sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could               also throw in some hellfire..” Martin Luther (“On              the Jews and their lies” 1543) 1517: Martin Luther posts         95 theses at Wittenberg. The Reformation will turn Europe into a battleground. 1517 A Dominican monk Johann         Tetzel swells papal coffers by selling indulgences (‘souls freed from         purgatory’!) 1524: Luther – no friend           of the downtrodden – encourages savagery of German princes in           putting  down the two-year Peasants’ Revolt.   Book Burners for Christ– Dominican monks in the service of Ferdinand proudly consign the wisdom         of Moorish Spain to the flames (Berruguete, Prado Museum, Madrid) 1553 John Calvin, the “Protestant            Pope” of Geneva proves his Christian credentials by having Michael            Servetus, the Spanish physician, burned at        the stake for heresy. Servetus      had opposed Trinitarianism and infant baptism. Servetus,                  the discoverer of pulmonary blood circulation (an advance on                  Galen) had fled the Inquisition and had thought himself safe          among Protestants. Oh dear.         1559 Introduction of Index of Forbidden Books (lasts until 1966) 1563 Following the Council         of Trent, Jesuit Order becomes ‘Defender of the Faith’. Huguenots are         persecuted in France.	17th Century Barbarity Burning Witches for Christ Urbain Grandier, burned         in Loudun, 1634. Cardinal Richelieu orchestrated his murder. 1600 After a seven year trail           before the Inquisition, Giordano Bruno, who had the audacity to suggest           that space was boundless and that the sun and its planets were not unique,           is condemned and burned at the stake. 1605: The Gunpowder Plot. Catholic fanatics attempt to blow up James         I of England. 1633 Galileo is brought before the Inquisition. Under threat of torture and death, he is forced from his knees to renounce all belief in Copernican theories. He is sentenced to life imprisonment. He dies in 1642 and the charges against him stand for another 350 years.     1618-1648 Central Europe         devastated by Thirty Years’ War between Catholics and Protestants
	1411 Dominican Vincente Ferrer         revives anti-Jewish hysteria in Spain: “cohorts of the Devil and         Anti-Christ, clever, warped and doomed.” 1415 John Huss           of Bohemia, critic of papal corruption but guaranteed personal           safety,  burned at the stake. “When dealing with heretics,           one is not obligated  to keep his word.” – Pope Gregory           XII. 1415 Pope John           XXIII deposed: “The most scandalous charges were suppressed;           the  Vicar of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy           and incest.” – Gibbon (Decline & Fall) 1478: Pope Sixtus         IV, in alliance with King Ferdinand of Spain, establishes the Spanish         Inquisition. Jews, Moors and heretics will be imprisoned, tortured and         murdered for centuries.         The bisexual Sixtus, though suffering from syphilis, fathers children         from his elder sister. 1484 Pope Innocent VIII decrees that cats are unholy creatures, to be burned along with the witches that own them. 1486 Taking a break               from book-burning, two Dominican monks, Henrich Kramer & James               Sprenger, write a best-seller – Malleus Maleficarum               (‘The Witches Hammer’) – ‘the most blood thirsty book ever               written.’ (Peter de Rosa, Vicars of Christ, p184) This unsurpassed               nonsense rests on the bench of every magistrate and judge in Europe               for three centuries and leads to tens of thousands of judicial murders. 1498 Dominican           reformer, Savonarola – burner of books & ornaments of ‘pagan            immorality’ – is himself burned for criticising the degenerate            Pope Alexander VI.
18th Century Scandal Christian Church endorses Slavery, Racism & subordination      of women “And Noah awoke from         his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said,         Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.         And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his         servant.” Genesis 9.24-26   “As for your male         and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves         from the nations that are round about you. You may also buy from among         the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you,         who have been born in your land; and they may be your property.”          Leviticus 25:44   1738: Freemasonry is condemned         by Clement XII and Catholics are forbidden to join. 1793: Last ‘witch’ burning at Poznen in Germany	19th Century Evil Christian Church Rejects Science & social        reform; Christian ‘missions’ go hand-in-hand with colonialism.   1814: Society of Jesus, suppressed         since 1773, is restored. The Inquisition continues until 1834, Church-sanctioned         torture until 1917. 1844: ‘Protection of Children         Act’ allows Church missionaries in Australia to kidnap aboriginal children. 1854: Pius IX proclaims the         dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the bull Ineffabilis Deus.         Lourdes shrine introduced.   1864: Pius IX issues the encyclical          Quanta cura and the Syllabus of Errors. It condemns some         80 propositions derived from scientific method and rationalism. Liberalism         & socialism are denounced.   1870: Vatican Council declares         the Pope “infallible”.   ‘Bible Societies’ & ‘Missions’         in European colonies destroy indigenous cultures	20th Century Iniquity Christian Church allies itself with Fascism;        opposes advances of science & personal freedom 1907 Pius X condemns Modernism         in the decree Lamentabili and the encyclical Pascendi. Hitler’s Pope – Pius         XII (1939-1958) Hitler, a Roman Catholic,            is never excommunicated for causing the death of millions; whereas        Martin Luther was excommunicated for criticism of the papal system. Friends of Fascists Everywhere:          Germany          Spain          Croatia	21st Century Menace Churches the Stalking Ground of Paedophiles & Sex        Offenders On March 12, 2000 Pope         John Paul II attempted to purify the soul of the Catholic Church by         apologising for 2000 years of “sins” committed by the church         – quite some compensation for twenty centuries of terrorism, extortion         and murder! And yet – September 2000 – the            same John Paul II issues “Dominus Jesus (Lord Jesus)”,  reaffirming              intolerance: “Only one path to God – the Roman Catholic Church.” And the story does not end: Still the evil continues… Child               sex abuse scandal rocks the US Catholic Church “The Roman Catholic         Church has removed 218 priests from their positions this year because         of child sexual abuse allegations, but at least 34 known offenders remain         in church jobs”– Reuters (June 9 2002) Anti-abortion Anti-birth control Creator of “saints” 31 July, 2003 “Congregation          for the Doctrine of the Faith” condemns same sex deviants          who seek marriage. In contrast, no Vatican condemnation    of priestly paedophiles.

Numbers Reveal Catholic Predators Worst Sexual Abusers of All

Shocking figures reveal that Catholic clergy are the worst sexual predators

By Barry Duke

PATRICK Parkinson, a Sydney University law professor testifying at a state inquiry into sexual abuse, said today that Catholic clergy commit SIX TIMES as much abuse as those in the rest of the churches combined.

The Australian child protection expert added:

Prof Patrick Parkinson

And that’s a conservative figure.

Parkinson told the Parliamentary inquiry that the figures for the Catholic Church were strikingly out of proportion, and he proposed a 12-month amnesty from charges of perverting the course of justice if the Church opened all its files on offenders alive and dead. Those involved in cover-ups, however, would have to resign, he said.

Professor Parkinson, who chaired a review of child protection laws in New South Wales and twice reviewed the Church’s national Towards Healing abuse protocol, said he broke with the Catholic Church over its cover-up of his independent report on the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Speaking under parliamentary privilege, he said the order sent three priests overseas to avoid police questioning, then suppressed his report on their actions.

He told the committee an American child safety expert had labeled the order:

The Church’s most defiant and unrepentant group.

Professor Parkinson added:

The lies were breathtaking, and [former Australian head] Father [Frank] Moloney was absolutely at the centre of all the untruths.

Earlier, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton set the inquiry’s opening day alight with more broadsides against the Catholic Church’s systemic obstruction of police inquiries over five decades.

He said police had statistics for sexual offences by clergy and church workers since January 1956, uncovering ”shocking” figures: 2,110 offences against 519 victims, overwhelmingly perpetrated by Catholic priests and mostly against boys aged 11 or 12. But in all that time the Church had not reported a single crime to police.

Savaging the church’s Melbourne Response protocol for dealing with complaints, Ashton said:

If a stranger were to enter a church and rape a child it would be immediately reported to police. But if the stranger were a member of the clergy, their special process would be wrapped around him. What is different about the clergy? It is the reputation of the church that creates the difference.

Hat tip: Tim Davies

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Ever-Increasing Number of Catholic Sex Abuse Cases | Catholic Empire of Pedophiles and Sexual Abusers

Catholic Church in Australia reveals 620 sex abuse cases

By Agence France-Presse

The Catholic Church in one Australian state has revealed that at least 620 children have been abused by its clergy since the 1930s, sparking a fresh call Saturday for an independent inquiry.

The Catholic Church in Victoria revealed the number in a submission to a state parliamentary hearing on Friday but said the instances of abuse reported had fallen dramatically from the “appalling” numbers of the 1960s and 1970s.

“It is shameful and shocking that this abuse, with its dramatic impact on those who were abused and their families, was committed by Catholic priests, religious and church workers,” Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said.

The full submission was not released publicly but the church said most of the 620 claims it had upheld over the last 16 years related to incidents 30 to 80 years ago, with very few related to abuse that has taken place since 1990.

Hart said the church had taken steps to redress the issue, including a programme implemented in the 1990s involving an independent investigation, an ongoing programme of counselling and support, and compensation.

“This submission shows how the church of today is committed to facing up to the truth and to not disguising, diminishing or avoiding the actions of those who have betrayed a sacred trust,” he said.

“We acknowledge the suffering and trauma endured by children who have been in the Church’s care, and the effect on their families. We renew our apology to them,” he said in a statement in which he spoke for church leaders in Victoria.

But victims’ supporters say the number of children abused was likely much higher than that confirmed by the church in its own inquiries.

President of the Law Institute of Victoria, Michael Holcroft, said there was a need for more independent investigations.

“Obviously there’s a public perception that the church investigating the church is Caesar judging Caesar and I think that the community is now looking for somebody external, someone independent to get to the bottom of what’s obviously been a big problem for a long, long time,” he told the ABC.

Archbishop Hart said victims were strongly encouraged to go to the police.

“We look to this inquiry to assist the healing of those who have been abused, to examine the broad context of the Church’s response, especially over the last 16 years, and to make recommendations to enhance the care for victims and preventative measures that are now in place,” he said.

The Victorian state government announced the inquiry into the handling of child abuse cases by religious and non-government bodies after the suicides of dozens of people abused by clergy.

Last year Pope Benedict XVI told Australian bishops that their work had been made more difficult by the clerical sex abuse scandal which has rocked the church as he exhorted them to “repair the errors of the past with honesty”.

The pontiff met victims of abuse when he travelled to Sydney in 2008.

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Catholic Predators | 700 Sex Cases Just In 2011

US priests accused in 700 sex cases in 2011: report

(AFP)–3 hours ago

WASHINGTON — About 700 people launched new claims of sexual abuse against Catholic clergy in the United States last year, including 21 who are still minors, according to a new report released by US bishops.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said in the report released Tuesday that of the 683 adults who reported allegations for the first time, “most allegations reported today are of incidents from previous decades.”

Sixty-eight percent of the complaints relate to events that took place between 1960 and 1984 — the majority from 1975 to 1979, the report says.

Many of the clergy members accused have since died, or been relieved of their church duties. More than 280 of them had been accused in the past, it said.

Of the 21 accusations made by minors, seven were considered credible by the police and three were determined to be false, the report said. Three other cases were still under investigation.

The Church spent $144 million dealing with the scandal in the United States in 2011 — including attorneys’ fees, settlements, and support for offenders — a decrease from $150 million in 2010.

The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked for several years now by a series of scandals involving allegations in pedophilia, including in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Germany and the United States.

The report is based on an audit of the Catholic dioceses in the United States by the StoneBridge Business Partners.

The audit has been undertaken every year since the Church was rocked by pedophilia claims in 2002, when the then archbishop of Boston admitted to sheltering a priest accused in multiple abuse cases.

“The Church must continue to be vigilant,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the president of the bishops’ conference.

“The Church must do all she can never to let abuse happen again. And we must all continue to work with full resolve toward the healing and reconciliation of the victims/survivors.”

The publication of the report comes several weeks after the start of the first trial of an American bishop who sheltered pedophile priests.

Monsignor William Lynn, who was responsible for supervising more than 800 priests in Philadelphia, stands accused of failing to report allegations of sexual abuse and failing to keep two priests away from minors.

Lynn faces up to 14 years in prison.

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New Report Details Catholic Child Abuse In The Tens of Thousands – In Netherlands Alone!

New Report Documents Widespread Abuse in Dutch Catholic Institutions

The atheist blogosphere is understandably buzzing with news of Christopher Hitchens‘ death. Take whatever time you might need to deal with this loss, but please don’t overlook the other big news of the day: a new report detailing widespread child abuse by Catholic clergy and others associated with the church has been released by an independent commission in the Netherlands.

The report by the an independent commission said Catholic officials failed to tackle the widespread abuse “to prevent scandals.” The suspected number of abuse victims who spent some of their youth in church institutions likely lies somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000, according to a summary of the report.

The commission received roughly 1,800 complaints and identified 800 perpetrators, including clergy and lay people working with them.

Once again, I call on Catholics to stop supporting this institution.

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• Thousands abused by Dutch priests, says report (vancouversun.com)
• Thousands abused by Dutch priests, says report (windsorstar.com)
• ‘Tens of thousands’ of children victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of paedophile priests in the Netherlands since 1945 (dailymail.co.uk)
• Wide Abuse in Dutch Catholic Institutions (time.com)