Abuse Inquiry Faults Bishop

The Tablet
January 31, 2013

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/latest-news/5033

An independent inquiry commissioned by two Australian bishops has found deficiencies in the Church's response to child sexual abuse allegations about a former priest, "F", in the 1980s and '90s.

The inquiry accuses the late Bishop Henry Kennedy of Armidale in New South Wales of ignoring advice not to ordain the priest and of an "utterly inexplicable" failure to examine claims against him.

The inquiry, by former Federal Court judge Antony Whitlam, QC, found that, had current procedures for reporting child abuse by the Catholic Church and protocols regarding the transfer of priests been in force, "F" would have been "stopped in his tracks".

Mr Whitlam wrote that he had no doubt that "F" was guilty of "the most vile sexual abuse" of two boys who both later committed suicide.