Ronald Mulkearns, a Criminal Honoured with Ill-deserved Tombstone

The Australian
April 7, 2017

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It is a talent found only among the finest obituarists, the ability to transcend the shortcomings of an individual recently gone to God where by the judicious use of euphemism and ambiguity, a glimmer of virtue can be found in a life stained by poor intentions and outrageous behaviour.

For example, an obituary to a much unloved journalist at The Australian who died many years ago featured the sublime phrase, “Surprisingly, he was rarely assaulted.”

The ultimate expression of vagueness and incertitude, often used by obituarists reads, “Mercifully he died.” It is an open-ended expression which at one level appears to imply the recently deceased has been delivered from mortal concerns but in the discrete language of obituarists, more often it indicates we have all been mercifully discharged from the ghastliness of his or her existence.

There are other instances when the obituarists are so roused, they drop any pretence of even the faintest praise. ...

Which brings me to Ronald Austin Mulkearns, the Bishop of Ballarat between 1971 and 1997.

Mulkearns died in April last year, just weeks after giving evidence to the Royal Commission. His evidence was shambolic. He stammered out replies and expressions of regret in an unconvincing manner.

The truth of it is Mulkearns was a criminal. He conspired with corrupt senior members of the Victoria Police Force, Detective Superintendent John O’Connor and Detective Chief Inspector Harvey Child to ensure a prolific child sex offender, Monsignor John Day, would not be prosecuted. O’Connor and Child met with Mulkearns at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat on January 31, 1972 where the officers convinced the bishop of Day’s offending and instructed him to remove Day from Mildura.

Mulkearns did as he was told, transferring Day to the tiny parish of Timboon, near Warrnambool where Day offended against children again. Day died unrepentant and unpunished in 1978. Day’s victims who had come forward and made their statements alleging horrific sexual abuse, were discarded in the rush to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church.