Some Clergy "in Denial" about Pedophilia

Sky News
December 10, 2015

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/local/melbourne/2015/12/10/some-clergy--in-denial--about-pedophilia.html

Some clergy are in denial about pedophilia and do not believe Australia's worst pedophile priest abused children, a priest says.

Former Diocese of Ballarat priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale is in jail for abusing 53 children but Fr Eric Bryant says some older clergy in particular are still in denial about pedophilia.

'I know Gerry Ridsdale's still got friends amongst the clergy who don't see the severity of what he has done,' Fr Bryant told the child abuse royal commission.

He said some priests, and a lot of people in society, still did not understand the impact of pedophilia and try to look to the good things Ridsdale did as a priest.

'They look to the good points. Look, Gerry Ridsdale is an evil person, for the evil acts he performed, but in his life as a priest he also did many good things.

'Some of them are still in denial: 'We don't believe all this about Gerry. All these people are making up stories and lying about it and the truth will come out one day."

Fr Bryant said a lot of priests felt extremely betrayed by Ridsdale and hurt by him.

'Some were very angry and aggressive. Some are still in denial about the whole Ridsdale thing,' he said on Thursday.

Ridsdale, one of 17 Diocese of Ballarat pedophile priests, has been jailed for abusing 53 children but is the subject of 78 abuse claims to the diocese.

Australian army chaplain and former Ballarat bishop's secretary Monsignor Glynn Murphy denied giving the run-around to solicitors for Ridsdale victim Paul Levey who were trying to serve a writ on the diocese in 1994.

Monsignor Murphy said it was the policy of the diocese and wider church to vigorously defend any litigation and he knew he could not change it.

'My attitude was that I would let people know what the policy was straight up, because I did not think it was fair for me to say otherwise than that.'

The commission heard Monsignor Murphy told the parents of Ridsdale victim and nephew David Ridsdale the church would vigorously defend any notion that it was liable or culpable for Ridsdale's problems.

He later told the church's insurers he impressed upon the parents to tell their son that he could expect to be in for a fight if he pursued action against the bishop, the commission heard.

'I wasn't saying to them that they cannot litigate at all,' Monsignor Murphy told the inquiry.

'I was saying to them, if they litigate, please understand that this is going to be the policy, because the bishop had been telling me that he was innocent and the policy of the diocese had been decided at a national level.

Monsignor Murphy, the convenor of a special issues committee dealing with complaints against Ballarat priests from 1993 to 1997, said he did not directly refer complaints against priest Paul David Ryan to the police.

"The committee believed it was referring anything it needed to refer through the bishop, through the office of the bishop," he said.

"There was no indication to me that he was not passing on any material that he should pass on."

Ryan was jailed for 18 months in 2006 after admitting to indecently assaulting one victim although the church has four abuse claims against him covering 1979 to 1992.

Two were committed while he was in the US for treatment.