AUSTRALIA
The Age
[Patrick Parkinson – right of reply]
[Salesians of Don Bosco transcript]
August 10, 2013
Barney Zwartz
The Catholic Salesians of Don Bosco order misled the Victorian inquiry into child sexual abuse about its attempts to suppress an independent report that criticised it, according to the report’s author.
Patrick Parkinson, professor of law at Sydney University, told the inquiry in a right of reply published on Friday that Australians could not have any confidence in promises by the church ”if we are unable to believe that the truth will be told even to a parliamentary inquiry”.
Meanwhile, the church has in turn attacked the inquiry for making ”incorrect, unfair and misleading” claims, and savaged witnesses in a right of reply published this week.
Peter O’Callaghan, QC, has also submitted a string of rebuttals of witnesses’ testimony, posting eight replies since July 26.
And a former consultant to Towards Healing, the church’s national abuse protocol, has claimed that the church’s insurance company dominated its policies at the expense of victims, and destroyed 40 boxes of personnel records.
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