Unholy Row Bishop Defies Pope, by Kate Dennehy, Brisbane Times, June 22, 2008

Unholy Row: Bishop Defies Pope

By Kate Dennehy
Brisbane Times
June 22, 2008

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/unholy-row-bishop-defies-pope/2008/06/22/1214073012957.html

THE Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane - in defiance of the Pope - continues to allow a convicted pedophile to remain a priest and celebrate Mass next to a school.

The Sun-Herald has learnt the priest - Father Ronald John McKeirnan, 69, of Toowong, in Brisbane's inner-west - enjoys the support and protection of high-ranking church officials, including Archbishop John Bathersby, despite having served a year in prison in 1998-99 for the sexual abuse of children.

Unholy row ... Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby, right, refuses to sack a pedophile priest, in defiance of Pope Benedict XVI, left.

Their decision to support Mr McKeirnan conflicts with a statement by Pope Benedict XVI in April that the church "would absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry ... who is guilty of pedophilia cannot be a priest".

Mr McKeirnan, a former deputy director of Brisbane Catholic Education, now works on Catholic church websites and conducts private Masses for priests.

He pleaded guilty on two separate occasions in Brisbane to abusing children. He was jailed in 1998 for molesting nine boys in the 1960s and '70s.

In sentencing Mr McKeirnan, the judge cited a "gross breach of trust" and said the impact of the abuse on the victims was "catastrophic". In Brisbane District Court in 2003, Mr McKeirnan

also pleaded guilty to three further charges of indecent treatment of a boy during the 1960s and '70s. He was given a suspended sentence.

Last week The Sun-Herald tracked him down to Marist Brothers' House, a Catholic accommodation centre, in inner-city Paddington.

Outside the house, Mr McKeirnan refused to answer questions. A fellow priest shielded him from the camera and directed him back inside the house.

The Sun-Herald has learnt that Mr McKeirnan is a regular visitor to the house, and on Thursdays celebrates weekly Mass there. The house adjoins Marist College, Rosalie, and overlooks itspool.

A parent at the school, Jan Menzies, said she was "very uneasy" about Mr McKeirnan being so near the school when her son did swimming training.

"I started going there at training time just to keep an eye on the dressing rooms," she said. "I don't think many in the school community knew McKeirnan was regularly so close to the school."

In 2006, another parent whose son attended the school wrote to the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, to complain about Mr McKeirnan and what she considered a "cover-up" by the Brisbane Archdiocese.

"Having a convicted pedophile so near the students was never made known to the community, yet parents were encouraged to drop their children at swimming training when he was there," she told The Sun -Herald. "Cardinal Pell replied that the issues at Rosalie were a matter for the Brisbane Archdiocese."

Archbishop Bathersby has said through a spokesman that under canon law he had "a responsibility to care for priests, active or retired, in his archdiocese ... [when] penalties are imposed on a cleric, provision must always be made so that he does not lack those things necessary for his decent support".

Mr McKeirnan's lawyer, Terry O'Gorman, said his client "had done his time and he's entitled to get on with his life and that includes celebrating Mass".