Wa Bishop Christopher Saunders Steps down over ‘serious Sex Abuse Allegations’

By Victoria Laurie
The Australian
March 11, 2020

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West Australian Catholic Bishop Christopher Saunders has stood down from his senior role administering the Broome diocese amid claims of serious but undisclosed sex abuse allegations.

The Catholic Church in Perth issued a communique from the Vatican, dated 10 March, indicating that Bishop Saunders, 70, had “voluntarily stood aside from the ordinary administration of the diocese.”

The church move was in response to a Channel Seven TV report that police have been investigating historic allegations by two men that they had been victims of sex abuse by Bishop Saunders.

According to the Seven report, WA police have interviewed past and present members of the Bishop’s staff, including priests, who allegedly laid complaints against his behaviour. No charges have been laid against him.

WA Police minister Michelle Roberts confirmed to The Australian that she had “directly referred correspondence in relation to Bishop Saunders to police.”

When confronted by a reporter in Broome outside his church, Bishop Saunders said: “Without any reservation, without any doubt whatsoever, that has never happened, and it never would happen.”

He is one of the Kimberley’s most prominent religious figures, respected as an advocate and outspoken commentator on indigenous affairs and education in the region.

He spent his early life at missions throughout the northwest of the state before moving to the Kimberley. He arrived in Broome as a deacon in 1975 before becoming a priest the following year.

He served at La Grange Mission, 200 kilometres south of Broome and then at Kalumburu Mission, in the far north Kimberley, until 1988. As Bishop, he has been a regular visitor to far-flung Aboriginal communities.

Former Broome mayor Ron Johnstone, a friend of the bishop, said the airing of the allegations would be “a shock to Broome and the Kimberley.”

“Bishop Saunders is a visionary who has done fantastic work for the community,” he said. “He is a generous spirit, and I will not desert him in his hour of need,” he said.