BishopAccountability.org

Archbishop Wilson ordered to give evidence on pedophile priest

By Dan Box
Australian
November 10, 2016

https://goo.gl/ilBA2u

Archbishop Philip Wilson.
Photo by Campbell Brodie

The Catholic Archbishop of ­Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has been ordered to give evidence in court about his knowledge of child abuse committed by one of the church’s worst pedophile priests.

Senior cleric Brian Lucas, who was recently ­described before a royal commission as one of “the architects of the church’s ­response” to child sex abuse, has also been issued with a similar subpoena by the NSW Supreme Court.

Both men have been ordered to attend a hearing this month and to provide documents relating to discussions with or about the late Denis McAlinden, a priest of the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle who abused dozens of children between the 1950s and 1980s.

Both have also been the subject of recent police inquiries ­relating to their knowledge of other pedophile priests.

Archbishop Wilson is facing a criminal charge for allegedly concealing child abuse committed by a second Newcastle priest, Jim Fletcher, making him the most senior Catholic official to be charged with such an offence anywhere in the world.

Father Lucas, the director of Catholic Mission, was interviewed by detectives earlier this year about his knowledge of ­Father John Farrell, who was ­recently jailed for abusing children in the Armidale region of NSW during the 1970s and 1980s.

Two of McAlinden’s ­alleged victims, who cannot be identified, are suing the Maitland-New­castle diocese and the estate of its former bishop, Leo Clarke, claiming they were ­abused between the mid-1970s to late 1980s.

While the church has previously admitted that McAlinden was an abuser, the case will centre on when officials were first aware of his crimes.

A 1976 letter sent to the late Clarke and provided to the court states “Fr. Mac has an inclination to interfere (touching only) with young girls — aged perhaps 7 to 12 or so”.

“Inevitably it leaves a psychological scar on the child’s mind,” the letter said.

Archbishop Wilson has also previously said that he was told about McAlinden’s abuse in 1985, when he was working in the ­diocese.

“One woman expressed ­concern her daughter had been abused,” he said in a public statement, released in 2007.

“I treated her account with the utmost seriousness and asked her to report her concerns to the police, but she decided not to do so … I reported this outcome to the bishop.’’

Clarke wrote to ­McAlinden in 1995, asking him to leave the priesthood “in light of your ­admission to Fr Brian Lucas and other evidence”.

“Your good name will be ­protected by the confidential ­nature of this process,” said the letter, which has been provided in evidence to the Supreme Court. Father Lucas has previously given evidence before both the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and a NSW special commission, saying that he met several pedophile priests during the 1990s, attempting to convince them to resign.

These included McAlinden and Farrell, with evidence before the royal commission showing Father Lucas was questioned by detectives last January about his knowledge of the second priest.

Giving evidence to the royal commission in September, Father Lucas said he took no notes of these meetings and did not report them to police.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Gail Furness SC, described him as one of “the architects of the church’s response” to clerical abuse.

Father Lucas, who is currently overseas, said yesterday: “I have always co-operated with the authorities and I have asked my solicitor to inform the parties that I will be available on my return.”

Archbishop Wilson, who declined to comment yesterday, was charged in March last year with concealing child abuse committed by the late pedophile priest Jim Fletcher.

He has since lost two court appeals to have the charge thrown out.

Porters Lawyers, which is representing the two alleged victims in the Supreme Court case, also declined to comment last night.

“The diocese has and continues to work to attempt to resolve these cases without further distress to the two claimants and remains hopeful this can be achieved,” said Newcastle bishop Bill Wright.

McAlinden, who died in 2005, was never jailed for his crimes.




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