AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times
February 23, 2013
I was abused, writes Geraldine Willesee, by a young Catholic priest whose sins were hidden.
The anguish in the letter, written in 1963, can still be felt across the years. It is from the late Perth parish priest Cyril Stinson to his then Archbishop, Redmond Prendiville. In it Stinson pleads with the archbishop to deal with his curate who he warns could ”go to prison” for his dealings with a minor. I was the minor.
This ”smoking gun” document, hidden for 50 years, has been released by the Catholic Archbishop of Perth thanks to the royal commission into religious child sex abuse, which requires the handing over of ”confidential” documents by the church.
Current and previous Perth archbishops had refused to release the document which reveals the activities of a known paedophile priest – Brian Harris, who died last May.
Tim Costelloe, the current archbishop, and Barry Hickey, former archbishop praised him in a glowing obituary.
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