BishopAccountability.org

Clergy: sex abuse 'a tragedy'

Riverine Herald
February 14, 2017

http://www.riverineherald.com.au/regional/2017/02/14/73813/clergy-sex-abuse-a-tragedy

Figures identified in a Royal Commission report showed almost 15 per cent of priests who ministered in the diocese between 1950 and 2010 were accused of child sexual offences.

REVELATIONS the Sandhurst Diocese had one of the worst child sex offence records in Australia was a ‘‘tragedy’’ and a ‘‘wake-up call’’ for the church, according to Rochester district priests. 

The diocese — which includes Rochester, Elmore and Lockington — 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 identified in a Royal Commission report showed almost 15 per cent of priests who ministered in the diocese between 1950 and 2010 were accused of child sexual offences. 

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Elmore Father Alex Lim said he was relieved it was out in the open. 

‘‘I’m really glad these things have come out, because they have to come out,’’ he said. 

‘‘This is a wake-up call for the church. Hopefully something might result from this in terms of putting up safeguards and reviewing measures to prevent these things from happening again.’’ 

But the minister, who has been on loan to the Sandhurst Diocese from his native Philippines for 13 years, said he also felt for the church’s leaders. 

Fr Lim said the leadership was being blamed for things they had ‘‘no control over’’. 

‘‘I will not offer an excuse, and I’m not saying the church doesn’t have to improve,’’ he said. 

‘‘But I feel sympathy for people such as Bishop (Leslie) Tomlinson, who has to stand up and speak against abuses which were committed even before he became a bishop. 

‘‘For me, that’s just not fair. But, at the end of the day, the church has to do something and I understand it has to be accountable for that.’’ 

St Joseph’s Church Father Ashley Caldow added his sorrow to the news, labelling it a ‘‘great tragedy’’. 

The Sandhurst 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’’.




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