Parish Vexed over Priest's Exit

By Helen Grimaux
Hume Weekly
April 9, 2013

http://www.humeweekly.com.au/story/1412319/parish-vexed-over-priests-exit/?cs=12

DISCONTENT is spreading among parishioners of the Church of the Good Shepherd at Gladstone Park after the "sudden" resignation of much-loved priest Father Victor Buhagiar at the start of this year.

A petition signed by more than 300 of the congregation has been sent to Melbourne Archbishop Dennis Hart on the eve of the Catholic Church's very public expose before the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse.

The petition follows several letters to Archbishop Hart from parishioners, who claim Fr Buhagiar has been forced out because of his tough stance on child abuse and his belief that there is an ongoing cover-up of illegal behaviour involving the Melbourne priesthood.

This has been denied by the archbishop.

"Father Buhagiar has claimed that he was forced to resign against his will, that he resigned in protest 'over the way the truth is being handled', and also that he 'resigned quietly' as a circuit breaker," Archbishop Hart told The Weekly.

"I reject these claims."

The archbishop said Father Buhagiar had left his post at Gladstone Park without telling his congregation about his resignation. The priest had asked to be reinstated, but only last week, the archbishop said.

Gladstone Park parishioner and petition organiser Margaret Sultana said the congregation felt the Catholic church hierarchy was, again, neglecting its duty of care to them by not being open and honest about the circumstances behind the sudden departure of Father Buhagiar.

Ms Sultana said many Gladstone Park worshippers are still coming to grips with finding their church at the centre of investigations into former local priest Wilfred "Billy" Baker. She said many older families in the area had also sent their children to Rupertswood College in Sunbury, where a number of former priests have been found to be involved in sex crimes.

Baker, now 76, was jailed for four years in 1999 after pleading guilty to 16 counts of child sex abuse. He now faces further charges in the Melbourne Magistrates Court. A committal hearing is scheduled for May.

Baker's initial child sex offences spanned almost 20 years, beginning in 1960 and involving victims aged between 10 and 12 at the time. Baker was a curate and then parish priest at suburban parishes such as Gladstone Park, Eltham and Brighton East.

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Now Baker and former Rupertswood College principal Frank Gerard Klep, 69, face new allegations involving young boys from 1966-1974 and in 1974. The charges result from Victoria Police's Taskforce Sano investigation into historical and new allegations resulting from the 2012 Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse.

Baker faces 14 charges, including two counts of buggery against a person aged less than 14, one in Apollo Bay in 1969 and one in Glen Waverley between November 1969 and November 1970.

Baker is also charged with five counts of indecent assault of a male, between 1966 and 1971 plus a further seven counts of committing an act of gross indecency in the presence of a male alleged to have occurred between 1969 and 1971.

Klep, 69, of Burwood, faces six counts of indecently assaulting a male. All alleged offences occurred in 1974, five in Sunbury and one in Chadstone.