Ex-archbishop Feared Rome's Reach: Inquiry

Geelong Advertiser
December 4, 2015

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/breaking-news/exarchbishop-feared-romes-reach-inquiry/news-story/448eebbef75dd09867f6573d1900153e

A former Melbourne archbishop feared the reach of Roman canon law and being left with egg on his face if the Vatican overturned a priest's removal, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

The commission has heard Archbishop Frank Little failed to remove a number of pedophile priests, which former vicar-general and auxiliary bishop Hilton Deakin believes was partly due to his fears about Rome.

The 1974-1996 archbishop, who died in 2008, feared the Vatican authorities would find in a priest's favour on appeal to Rome, Bishop Deakin said.

"I think the archbishop was very much motivated and governed by his own problem about Roman law, about Roman authority, about dismissing a priest and having him come back and then finding egg all over his face and that sort of stuff," he said on Friday.

Bishop Deakin said the situation needed to change.