AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline
[with video]
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 26/02/2013
Reporter: Emma Alberici
Former monk and priest, and now advocate for victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, Patrick J Wall, says sexual abuse of children has been part of the culture of the Catholic Church as far back as 60 AD and despite constant attempts by the Popes to curtain the problem, it has never been snuffed out.
Transcript
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Just a short time ago we were joined from Irvine, south of Los Angeles, by Patrick J Wall, a former priest and monk who is now a lawyer and an advocate for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
Patrick Wall, welcome to Lateline.
PATRICK J WALL, ADVOCATE FOR SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS: Thank you.
EMMA ALBERICI: Now you are a former member of the Roman Catholic clergy. Can you tell us the circumstances around which you actually left the priesthood?
PATRICK J WALL: Well after 12 years in the monastery and six years as the priest, all six years I was assigned to follow perpetrators, I came to the conclusion in my early 30s that if I wanted to be a defence lawyer and to defend child abusers the rest of my life, that was going to be my next 40 years.
And at that point after, you know, discovering that this is just not an isolated phenomena to the diocese or the religious order I belong to, it’s really a worldwide phenomena, I had to pull the plug and leave in ’98.
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