Child abuse royal commission: Bishop accused of changing evidence to 'protect church'

By Danny Morgan
ABC News
December 14, 2015

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Gerald Ridsdale was jailed for child sex offences in 1994.

A Catholic bishop has been accused of trying to protect himself and the church while giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Bishop Brian Finnigan was among a group of priests who handled complaints of paedophilia among priests in the Ballarat Diocese in the 1980s.

Counsel Assisting the Commission Angus Stewart SC asked the bishop why his evidence in a private hearing earlier this year differed from his evidence in public hearings today and last Friday.

"The evidence that you have given for the royal commission on Friday and indeed this morning has not been given in such a way that you have sought to assist the royal commission and the public to understand the history of Gerald Ridsdale in the Diocese of Ballarat," he put to Bishop Finnigan.

Bishop Finnigan replied that his intention was "certainly not to create confusion".

Bishop Finnigan: "If I have created confusion because of my various ways of expressing things all I can say is 'I'm sorry'."

Angus Stewart SC: "I say to you bishop that in your evidence in this public hearing you have consistently distanced yourself from any knowledge of child sexual assault by priests of the dioceses to protect yourself and to protect the church - isn't that right?"

Bishop Finnigan: I wouldn't agree with that.

Earlier, Mr Stewart read from a transcript of an interview Bishop Finnigan gave in 1993 to the Catholic Church's insurers, asking the bishop to confirm the truth of his answers.

Both Mr Stewart and the commission chair Justice Peter McLellan expressed frustration with the bishop's inability to do so.

Justice McLellan: "You told me the other day that you answered truthfully, didn't you?"

Bishop Finnigan: "Yes I did answer truthfully. I wasn't making up stories, but at the same time I didn't consider [the church insurance interview] a formal interview under oath or anything like that."

Justice McLellan: "You wouldn't see the obligation to tell the truth to a CCI [Catholic Church Insurance] investigator in the same light."

Bishop Finnigan: "I would imagine that I was trying to tell the truth of what I knew at the time but I'm happy to acknowledge now the very loose statements that I made."

In other evidence, a Catholic priest said the need to remain celibate led to a level of immaturity within the priesthood and contributed to the church's inability to recognise paedophilia within its ranks.

Father John McKinnon acknowledged he failed victims by not questioning why several colleagues were moved around the Ballarat Diocese during the 1970s and 80s.

Father McKinnon said he was not aware of the paedophilia problem until the late 1980s and did not question decisions made by Bishop Ronald Mulkearns.

He said a cultural immaturity within the priesthood meant priests advising the bishop were not sensitive to the possibility child abuse was the reason some colleagues were being moved.

He believes immaturity stemmed from the fact many priests went straight from school to a secluded life in the seminary, a very different life to young men their age.

"Most fellows would have had the opportunity to cope with falling in love and negotiating relationships and some would have grown and had their own families and so on and again developing that capacity, that sensitivity to a child and that sense of sacredness of the child," Father McKinnon said.

"I sometimes wonder whether the fact that we are celibate means that we miss out on that normal incentive to grow.

"I think it would be better if there were women among the consulters and women in positions of leadership because I believe they would be instinctively sensitive to these things when we weren't."

The hearing continues.