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Abuse Royal Commission Told of Interviews with Allegedly Abusive Priests

By Dan Box
The Australian
September 19, 2016

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A senior Catholic official personally interviewed around 35 allegedly abusive priests, convincing them to plead guilty or resign, but made no record of the conversations and did not report them to the police, a royal commission has heard.

Brian Lucas, the Australian director of Catholic Mission, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he was acting to protect children by removing dangerous priests from their positions.

Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, has described him as one of the “architects of the church’s approach” to the issue of child sex abuse committed by clergy.

Under questioning this morning, Father Lucas was asked about previous evidence he has given saying he interviewed 35 allegedly abusive priests around the early 1990s, a figure he described as “very, very rubbery”, he said.

 

 

 

 

 




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