AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher
Article originally posted December 2011,
last updated 7 July 2012
This is a classic case-study in how the Catholic Church authorities in Australia kept quiet about this priest (let’s call him Father F) for thirty years until the matter was finally exposed in a television program in July 2012.
In the early 1980s, in one parish in northern New South Wales, altar boys alleged that they were being sexually abused by Father F. But the two leaders of this diocese — Bishop Henry Kennedy and Monsignor Frank Ryan — ignored the complaints. The two leaders protected this priest, helping him to avoid a criminal conviction.
Former altar boys of Father F have said that their lives were damaged not only by the abuse but also by the church’s cover-up and the code of silence.
Eventually, the church was forced to pay compensation to two of Father F’s former altar boys — Damian Jurd and Daniel Powell. But, despite this compensation, Damian and Daniel no longer wished to continue living, and they died at the age of 28, each of them leaving two young children. Damian and Daniel did not know each other (they were from different parishes) but their tragic stories are remarkably similar.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.