BishopAccountability.org

Paedophile priests rock the local church

Riverine Herald
February 08, 2017

http://www.riverineherald.com.au/2017/02/08/5801/paedophile-priests-rock-the-local-church

St Mary’s Catholic Church’s Father Des Welladsen said it was a shocking revelation.

THE Catholic Church’s Sandhurst Diocese, which includes Echuca, Rochester and Kyabram, had one of the worst child sex offence records in Australia.

Second only to the Diocese of Sale, in Gippsland. Figures in both were more than double the national average identified by the Royal Commission.

An Echuca parish priest, appalled at the shocking new data from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, is also relieved it is now all out in the open.

The Sandhurst Diocese, which includes Echuca, had the second highest rate of priests accused of child sexual abuse out of Australia’s 17 Catholic dioceses over a period of 60 years.

Figures showed almost 15 per cent of priests who ministered in our diocese between 1950 and 2010 were accused of child sexual offences.

St Mary’s Catholic Church’s Father Des Welladsen said it was a shocking revelation.

‘‘It’s a surprise to me,’’ he said.

During his 47 years ministering in the Sandhurst Diocese, Fr Welladsen said he was only aware of one paedophile priest.

He said it could be time to reconsider the vow of celibacy and priests not being allowed to marry.

‘‘I think it should be looked at,’ he said.

‘‘Celibacy should be optional.’’

Fr Welladsen said he didn’t know what would happen now but it would be a matter of waiting to see what the commission recommended.

‘‘At least it’s all out in the open now,’’ he said.

The diocese, which covers the area from Kerang to Mount Beauty, was second only to the Diocese of Sale in paedophile priests.

Proportionately, more priests allegedly committed offences in Sandhurst than the Ballarat Diocese, where the Royal Commission sat from 2015 to hear evidence from residents and former students.

There were no incidents of alleged sexual abuse in the Sandhurst diocese after 2000, and no priests employed after 1990 were accused of any offences. Most offending occurred in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Almost 10 per cent of the number of alleged sexual abuse cases in the diocese occurred before 2000, but were not reported until after that year.

Current Sandhurst Bishop Leslie Tomlinson said the evidence of the Royal Commission, ‘‘along with all we have heard over the past four years, can only be

interpreted for what it is — a massive failure on the part of the Catholic Church as an institution in Australia to protect our children from abusers and predators’’.

‘‘Over a 60-year period, the Sandhurst Diocese had a total of 27 claims of abuse, of which 14 were substantiated.

‘‘The report identified 1880 alleged perpetrators across Australia, of which 384 were Diocesan priests. The total number of priests from the Sandhurst Diocese alleged to have been perpetrators, using the 14.7 percent figure stated in the report released by the Royal Commission, is 16. This is consistent with data held by the Diocese.

‘‘On these figures, the 16 Sandhurst priests represent 4.1 per cent of the total alleged perpetrators Australia-wide.

‘‘The last report of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest in this Diocese was in 1991.’’




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