Bishop Never Looked at Files: Inquiry

By Ian Kirkwood
Newcastle Herald
July 10, 2013

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1630516/bishop-never-looked-at-files-inquiry/?cs=303

BISHOP Michael Malone says he never looked at confidential files about his priests despite the paedophilia controversy that raged during his 16 years in charge of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese of the Catholic Church.

In an extraordinary afternoon of evidence before the Special Commission of Inquiry sitting in Newcastle, the retired bishop agreed that some of his evidence "defied belief".

But he insisted it was true, and repeatedly said he had never seen a trove of documents obtained by the commission's investigators, even though they all came from the diocese headquarters and some came from filing cabinets in his own office.

Some of Bishop Malone's early evidence yesterday about the circumstances of his taking over the diocese from Bishop Leo Clarke in 1995 drew sympathetic laughter from many in the 50-strong gallery.

Bishop Malone said Bishop Clarke was ‘‘was out of there like a rocket’’ once he had relinquished control.

Asked why he had been moved from Gosford to run Maitland-Newcastle, Bishop Malone said: ‘‘I’m scratching my head about that still.

‘‘It was completely out of the blue. I had no idea.’’

He said dealing with paedophile priest Denis McAlinden was his first duty in charge but the only thing that Bishop Clarke would say when he asked him about it was that McAlinden had ‘‘behavioural issues’’.

Bishop Malone said that when he asked about the ‘‘secret’’ matters he knew would exist under church canon law, Bishop Clarke’s answer was that he would ‘‘find out about’’ them in time.

Asked to describe his feelings at the situation that confronted him, Bishop Malone, who served as head of the diocese until 2001, said: ‘‘Shock would be the right word.’’

But the gallery mood seemed to change as counsel assisting the commission, Julia Lonergan, asked Bishop Malone at length about the files recovered earlier this year from the diocese headquarters.

Some of the answers elicited audible gasps from paedophile victims and their families and supporters in the gallery.

Asked about checking the file of McAlinden, Bishop Malone said ‘‘I didn’t think to do that because I had enough already to act on’’.

Ms Lonergan said it ‘‘defied belief’’ that he would not familiarise himself with the history of McAlinden, who was eventually stripped of his priesthood.

Malone: ‘‘In hindsight, yes, but I thought there was enough to go on.’’

Later, Bishop Malone said: ‘‘I don’t know where your investigators found all these documents.

‘‘Presumably they accessed the archives of the diocese. That’s a luxury I didn’t have. I was in charge of a big diocese. Most of my days were planned beforehand.

‘‘I didn’t have time to go trolling through the archives, especially if I didn’t know what I might try to find.’’

He knew each priest had a personnel file and he presumed these would have contained confidential information.

Asked if he was telling the commission he had not opened any confidential file about any priest in his 16 years in charge, Bishop Malone said: ‘‘No, I don’t think I did.’’

Asked where the confidential files were kept, Bishop Malone said at least some were kept in filing cabinets in Bishop Leo Clarke’s office, which he acknowledged, when asked by Ms Lonergan, had become his own.

He said the only ‘‘secret’’ documents that Bishop Clarke had alerted him to were in a ‘‘rather large briefcase in the corner of his office’’.

Bishop Malone said he could not recall if the briefcase had information about McAlinden or paedophile priest Jim Fletcher, but he did remember a ‘‘fairly lengthy’’ file about a woman who claimed to be ‘‘a visionary’’.