Cover-up inquiry to reopen

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

Aug. 29, 2013

An inquiry into the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse committed by Maitland and Newcastle Catholic priests will reopen to hear evidence from two of the church’s most senior officials.

The special commission of inquiry will reconvene in Sydney on September 9 when the general-secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Father Brian Lucas, and the chancellor of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Monsignor John Usher, will give evidence.

Father Lucas gave evidence to the inquiry during its eight weeks of public hearings that wrapped up in Newcastle earlier this month.

He said between 1990 and 1995 he heard of 35 complaints against priests while working on a team established to persuade ­paedophile priests to resign.

Father Lucas was also part of a committee that designed protocol for bishops in dealing with allegations of criminal behaviour in the 1980s and 1990s.

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.