BishopAccountability.org

Bishop thought NSW priest was innocent

9 News
September 14, 2016

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/09/14/11/35/nsw-priest-s-shame-at-sex-abuse-response

The Catholic leader who invited pedophile priest John Farrell into his diocese didn't believe Farrell posed a risk to children because sex abuse charges against him had been dismissed, a royal commission heard.

Former Parramatta Bishop Bede Heather told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse he'd thought Farrell was innocent because the charges, which involved one boy, were dismissed at a committal hearing in 1988.

He invited Farrell to work at the Merrylands parish in November 1989 after Farrell was forced out of the St Nicholas Church in Tamworth due to persistent child sex allegations.

The now-retired Bishop Heather admitted his failure to make careful inquiries into Farrell's past had led to one of the greatest mistakes of his life.

"I have to say it weighs heavily on my conscience that I've known ... one child was abused as a result of my giving permission to Father Farrell to work in our diocese," Bishop Heather said.

Wednesday's hearing was told that church leaders in Farrell's home diocese of Armidale in northern NSW did not contact police in 1984 when a number of Moree parents came forward with allegations he had abused their altar boy sons.

Instead, Farrell was ordered to leave the Moree parish - ostensibly on sick leave - and was sent to a psychologist before taking up a position at Tamworth just two months later.

Bishop of Wagga Wagga Gerard Hanna, then the priest administrator for Tamworth, said he was told by Armidale Bishop Henry Kennedy that Farrell had been "messing around with altar boys" and that he should "give him restricted ministry and keep an eye on him".

Bishop Hanna said the scandal surrounding Farrell was managed "in-house".

"Frank Ryan (Vicar-General of Armidale) was the only person who knew who the (victims) were, what their names were," he told the commission.

"It was never reported to the police, there was no public inquiry."

Farrell's contact with minors in Tamworth was restricted but Bishop Hanna recalled trying in vain to stop the priest from visiting a family he'd grown close to.

The mother, Bishop Hanna said, insisted Farrell was a good influence on her children.

The former priest was jailed for a minimum 18 years in May for sexual offences against a dozen children in Moree and Tamworth in the 1980s.

The royal commission is investigating how church leaders in Armidale and Parramatta responded to the allegations against the priest.

Bishop Heather is expected to continue giving evidence on Thursday.




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