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Royal Commission to Recommend Catholic Church Change Processes for Removing Parish Priests

ABC
November 27, 2015

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2015/s4361381.htm

TIM PALMER: The child sex abuse royal commission has indicated it will recommend that the Catholic Church change its processes to ensure priests can be easily removed from their parishes if they commit any sort of offence.

This week the commission has heard senior Catholic clergy and church bureaucrats failed to remove a paedophile priest from a Melbourne parish in the 1980s.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The royal commission has heard that in the mid 1980s the staff and principal of a Melbourne Catholic primary school were under pressure.

They were trying to protect their students from paedophile priest Peter Searson.

The Catholic Education Office and Frank Little, then Archbishop of Melbourne, refused to act without concrete evidence the priest was offending.

The education office's regional consultant at the time was Allan Dooley.

He told the royal commission today that by 1984 he had formed the view the children of the Doveton's Holy Family Primary School shouldn't be left alone with Father Searson.

ALLAN DOOLEY: Because of his manner, because of the way he would deal with children, because of the way he would intimidate and threaten.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: By 1985 Allan Dooley knew the most serious incident involving Searson was the apparent sexual assault of a nine year old girl. She'd run screaming from the confessional.

But Allan Dooley told the commission that without the girl's mother formally asking the Catholic Education Office to investigate he could do nothing more.

Today he agreed that leaving the school principal and staff to supervise Searson was inadequate.

Royal commission chairman Peter McClellan.

PETER MCCLELLAN: Certainly by this stage the risk to children you'd identified meant that every child in the school was potentially a victim?

ALLAN DOOLEY: Yes your honour.

PETER MCCLELLAN: The only way to deal with that situation is to remove the problem, isn't it?

ALLAN DOOLEY: Yes your honour.

PETER MCCLELLAN: That's what should have happened.

ALLAN DOOLEY: Yes I believe so your honour.

PETER MCCLELLAN: And you should have recommended it.

ALLAN DOOLEY: It should have been part of a recommendation from me.

PETER MCCLELLAN: And you didn't make it?

ALLAN DOOLEY: No.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The former school principal, Graeme Sleeman, has told the royal commission he repeatedly told Allan Dooley of Father Searson's dangerous behaviour.

He gave evidence the stress he was under eventually forced him to resign and he believes the Catholic Education Office blackballed him from ever working in schools again.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Counsel for Graeme Sleeman, Paul O'Dwyer SC, asked Mr Dooley about his description of Mr Sleeman in a memo at the height of the problems with Searson.

PAUL O'DWYER: Graeme was quite obsessed about Father Searson. Is that your view?

ALLAN DOOLEY: Yes.

PAUL O'DWYER: Allan his concern again that Graeme gets too caught up in issues and allows himself to be distracted from his job as principal. Is that your view?

ALLAN DOOLEY: That was my view at the time. It's not my view any longer.

PAUL O'DWYER: He was getting obsessed with the fact that he had a man in his parish who was living there who was in complete authority who was a paedophile - living amongst 400 children with authority over them and everyone else. Do you think that anyone with any moral sensitivity would become obsessed by that?

ALLAN DOOLEY: Yes.

PAUL O'DWYER: If Mr Sleeman resigned because had a paedophile priest in his parish and he could not stand the strain any longer of trying to protect his flock from that priest in the context of him getting no real support. That's a reality isn't it?

ALLAN DOOLEY: Yes.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Peter Connors is a former bishop of Ballarat. In the mid 1980s he was the vicar general of Melbourne. He admitted to the commission that the Melbourne Archdiocese's processes failed to address the problem of Peter Searson.

TIM PALMER: Samantha Donovan reporting.

 

 

 

 

 




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