Cardinal Pell Associate Banned from Preaching in Ireland over Abuse Allegations

By Timna Jacks and Chris Vedelago
Sydney Morning Herald
October 8, 2016

http://www.smh.com.au/national/cardinal-pell-associate-banned-from-preaching-in-ireland-over-abuse-allegations-20161006-grwxlh.html

A controversial Melbourne priest and close associate of Cardinal George Pell has been banned from ministering in Ireland for committing an act of sexual abuse that senior Australian church figures have dismissed as simply a "breach of his vow of celibacy".

The decision by an Irish bishop and the country's Catholic child protection authority comes despite Father John Thomas Walshe receiving an official endorsement of his good character and reputation by Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart.

Father Walshe came to national prominence after he testified on behalf of Cardinal Pell at the sexual abuse royal commission late last year, which was investigating claims then Bishop Pell tried to buy the silence of a victim of notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale in 1993.

The controversial appearance led a former student priest, John Roach, to publicly reveal that Father Walshe himself had been found by church authorities to have committed an act of sexual abuse in 1982.