Decision to Give Orphange Job to Paedophile Priest Was "Questionable', Top Christian Brother Tells Royal Commission

By Chris Johnston
The Age
February 24, 2016

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/decision-to-give-orphange-job-to-paedophile-priest-was-questionable-top-christian-brother-tells-royal-commission-20160224-gn29li.html

Edward 'Ted' Dowlan leaving the City Watchhouse in 1994.

The former headmaster of St Kevins College in Toorak, Brother Brian Brandon – a senior Victorian Catholic administrator - admitted today it was "questionable" to give paedophile priest Ted Dowlan a job at an orphanage housing young victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Brother Brandon – a former head of legal affairs and provincial council member of the Christian Brothers for Victoria and Tasmania – said there were "suspicions" but not "knowledge" of Brother Dowlan's sexual interest in boys at the time of the appointment.

Brother Brandon has also held a role with the church's professional standards team.

Brother Dowlan started working at the St Vincents Boys Orphanage in South Melbourne in 1989. Photo: John Lamb

Brother Dowlan started working at the St Vincents Boys Orphanage in South Melbourne in 1989.

Protesters outside Ballarat Magistrate's Court before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this week. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

"In retrospect I would simply have to say that I could not now support the action that been taken."

Justice McClellan asked him if the Catholic provincial council, of which he was a member, had turned a blind eye to allegations against Dowlan.

"No," he said. "No. It means that we were not alert enough to the possibility of things going wrong."

Brother Dowlan was a teacher at St Alipius primary school in Ballarat.

Brother Brandon conceded that at the time he had a "slight feeling of it being a questionable decision".

The commission was told Brother Brandon wrote a "visitation" report on Cathedral College, in East Melbourne, where Dowlan was a teacher in 1984, which mentioned no concerns.

The following year another senior Christian Brother wrote a report on the school which questioned Dowlan's habit of being "overly affectionate" with boys.

Brother Brandon said this was not "specifically" discussed by Catholic leaders.

"I do remember … in terms of emotional maturity and coping with life [Dowlan] was a topic of consideration from time to time by the leadership team.

"I think that his emotional immaturity would have showed itself in the way he related to everyone."

That year Dowlan wrote a letter to a Christian Brothers provincial council member about his "desire to love and be loved." He wrote: "The urge to love is just so strong within me. This is me and I have this dream that love can be the motivating force in my classroom."

Brother Brandon told the commission he could not remember the letter.

In 1987, when Dowlan was moved to St Mary's Technical School in Geelong, a lay teacher, Robert Thompson wrote a letter to the Christian Brothers' provincial council expressing his "shock and dismay" that Dowlan had turned up.

"Here we go again," he wrote.

Brother Brandon told the commission that the latter was "probably" talked about by the provincial council but he couldn't remember specifics.

The commission heard Brother Brandon himself wrote a report on St Augustines boys orphanage, in Geelong, in 1991, where Dowlan also worked, but did not reflect any of the allegations against Dowlan in the report.

He said he knew of "general innuendo" and kept his "nose to the ground" for new information on Dowlan. Brother Brandon said he did interview Dowlan as part of his report, but could not remember what they talked about.

The hearing continues.