Safety the Priority with Pedophile Release: Church

By Stuart Rintoul
The Australian
June 1, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/safety-the-priority-with-pedophile-release-church/story-e6frg6nf-1226654790458

MELBOURNE Archbishop Denis Hart says "community safety" should be given priority in any decision to parole one of Australia's worst pedophiles, former priest Gerald Ridsdsale, who could be freed from jail within a month.

Asked what the church's position was on Ridsdale's release and what support the church would give him if he he was parolled, Archbishop Hart said: "I think the community will look very carefully at what he's done, what is best all over, because I think safety in the community has to be a priority."

Archbishop Hart did not go so far as to say he opposed Ridsdale's release, saying: "I'd leave that to the authorities, I think."

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird said that as a defrocked priest of the Ballarat diocese, the diocese had no obligation to provide Ridsdale with any support and had no intention of doing so.

"When we first heard the possibility of his release that question came up and that is clearly our policy," Bishop Bird told The Weekend Australian.

He said authorities would have to carefully weigh the 19 years Ridsdale had served and community concerns.

Ridsdale, 79, was jailed for 18 years in 1994 for offences against 21 children while a priest at several churches between 1961 and 1982.

In 2006, he was sentenced to 13 years, with a minimum of seven years, after being convicted of other offences against 10 boys between 1970 and 1987. Police interviewed Ridsdale in jail on Thursday in relation to new claims of abuse. There have been claims Ridsdale told family members he abused "hundreds" of children.

As many as 26 people committed suicide after being abused by Ridsdale and Christian Brother Robert Best, but a Victorian child abuse inquiry has heard that priests have visited Ridsdale in jail.

Bishop Bird said yesterday there was an obligation on priests to "extend some care to even those who have committed great crimes".

Archbishop Hart told a gathering of church leaders in Melbourne, including former governor James Gobbo, the church was determined to "face up to the appalling crimes of child sex abuse that occurred within the Catholic church and to ensure that the abuse is no longer occurring, victims are supported and we are doing everything possible to prevent it occurring in the future".

He also apologised for saying it was "better late than never" when he attempted to defrock pedophile priest Des Gannon in 2011, 18 years after the church became aware of his crimes. He said it was "a very poor choice of words", he did not intend to be flippant, and he remained determined to have Gannon defrocked.

Gannon has been jailed multiple times for crimes committed from the 1950s to the 1970s. The inquiry heard this week that whern allegations were made against Gannon in 1993, former archbishop Frank Little allowed him to retire as a pastor emeritus on bogus health reasons.

Archbishop Hart said the church had changed and would take immediate action if the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into abuse revealed "any new wrongdoing or covering-up, no matter by whom".

"We have changed," Archbishop Hart said. "We are facing the truth and we are committed to being open and transparent."

Archbishop Hart said the child abuse scandal had hit the church "like a brick" and the church had a "tremendous journey" ahead of it, "walking with those who have been hurt", to rebuild community trust that had been lost.