BishopAccountability.org

Abuse survivors fear bishop ‘could take secrets to grave’

By Steve Lillebuen
Age
February 21, 2016

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/ballarat-bishop-could-take-secrets-to-grave-20160221-gmzmi4

Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns will give evidence this week.
Photo by Alicia Thomas

A former Ballarat bishop's forthcoming evidence about what the Catholic Church knew about paedophile priests could be a "game changer", according to a victims' group.

But others fear Ronald Mulkearns, who has terminal cancer and been given only months to live, may end up taking his secrets to his grave.

The former bishop has been scheduled to give his long-awaited evidence to the child sex abuse royal commission this week when hearings begin again in Ballarat on Monday.

The city will be decorated in ribbons as residents show their public support for abuse survivors.

Bishop Mulkearns presided over the Ballarat parish between 1971 and 1997 – when priests facing child sex abuse allegations, including convicted paedophile priest Gerald Risdale, were moved between parishes. He has told his doctor his memory is vague and the commission has been warned his cognitive impairments mean he may not be able to effectively answer questions.

But victims' group Broken Rites spokesman Wayne Chamley said Bishop Mulkearns  had  nothing to lose by being honest about what he knew.

His evidence could even have implications for Cardinal George Pell, who, as a Ballarat priest, was an adviser to the bishop, he said.

"It's possible that the evidence given by Mulkearns might be the game changer," he said. "He [Cardinal Pell] may have to answer some things that he otherwise wasn't expecting to answer."

Ballarat abuse survivor Stephen Woods, however, does not have much hope that Bishop Mulkearns will reveal all.

"He's about to die. He's going to go to the grave ...  with his secrets," he said.

Bishop Mulkearns' evidence, which may be given via videolink from his Ballarat nursing home  at some point during the week, will precede Cardinal Pell's third commission appearance from Rome from February 29.

Cardinal Pell has denied knowing children were being abused in Ballarat when he was there.

The commission hearings begin at 10am on Monday at the Ballarat Magistrates Court.




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