NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald
By Catherine Masters , Greg Ansley
5:30 AM Saturday Nov 17, 2012
Calls mount for New Zealand involvement in a top-level Australian inquiry into the widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and other authority figures. Greg Ansley and Catherine Masters report
Former priest Denis McAlinden was defrocked following sexual abuse allegations involving minors in Australia. He spent six months in Tokomaru Bay’s church. Photo / Supplied
The Catholic church in Tokomaru Bay, Gisborne, is like many in small-town New Zealand – a picture of safety and innocence.
It’s hard to imagine that the pretty little wooden chapel with the blue roof has been caught up in a top-level inquiry into the sexual abuse of children, which was launched in Australia but is likely to extend to this country.
Among the practices to be investigated is that instead of prosecuting paedophile priests, the Catholic church transferred them from diocese to diocese – sometimes shipping them across the Tasman to New Zealand and vice versa.
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