Church Was Too Keen to Look after Herself: Denis Hart

By Stuart Rintoul
The Australian
May 21, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/church-was-too-keen-to-look-after-herself-denis-hart/story-e6frgczx-1226647216356

MELBOURNE archbishop Denis Hart has admitted the crimes of pedophile priests were covered up by former long-time Melbourne archbishop Frank Little, who dealt with complaints confidentially, kept no records and moved offending priests to new parishes.

In a three-hour interrogation by a Victorian parliamentary inquiry, it was also revealed Archbishop Hart last year warned the Vatican of the possibility of a "scandal for the faithful" if it did not defrock a pedophile priest.

Archbishop Hart also said the church would support the extension of mandatory reporting to ministers of religion, except for the sanctity of the confessional.

Archbishop Hart said the Catholic Church had for too long been "too keen to look after herself and her good name".

Under examination by MP Frank McGuire, Archbishop Hart agreed that Little, Melbourne archbishop from 1974 to 1996, "covered up" abuse by priests, and moved at least two pedophile priests, Kevin O'Donnell and Wilfred Baker, to what Mr McGuire called "innocent parishes and innocent children".

Archbishop Hart said he could not justify Little's actions, but had inherited the pain caused by his inaction.

He said he believed Little, who died in 2008 and was succeeded by George Pell, was a sensitive man who found it hard to believe that priests could do such "evil, evil things".

Giving evidence on the church's failure to defrock pedophile priests, Archbishop Hart said he had attempted several times to have convicted pedophile Desmond Gannon defrocked.

Archbishop Hart said Gannon, who has been sentenced five times since 1995 for sexual crimes against children committed between 1957 and 1979, had his faculties as a priest withdrawn in 1993, but until Vatican changes in 2002 it had been "an onerous process" to defrock priests against their will and Gannon was in jail, but he was "resolute" in trying to have him defrocked in 2011 and last year.

He was "not very happy" when the Vatican ruled that because of Gannon's extreme age, and unwillingness to be laicised, he should have a "penal precept" imposed on him instead, restricting his activities.

Inquiry head Georgie Crozier read a letter from Archbishop Hart to the Vatican in December last year, in which he said: "The media in Victoria have been active in reporting the information and allegations made before the parliamentary inquiry, often concentrating on those cases involving the Catholic Church. I am gravely concerned that the steps taken in the case of Rev Desmond Gannon, in the light of this new situation and also the possibility of further allegations against him, be seen to be inadequate and the cause of scandal for the faithful."

When it was put to him that the church had failed to defrock Gannon for 18 years, Archbishop Hart replied, to groans in the public gallery, "Well, better late than never."

Cardinal Pell is due to give evidence next week.