AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
December 2, 2013
Joanne McCarthy
In late 2008 a Newcastle woman wrote to a senior Australian Catholic clergyman and sought a meeting. She wanted a personal apology from him. In 1995 the clergyman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, had a role in the attempted defrocking of notorious paedophile priest Denis McAlinden. The woman, who attended the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle this year, was eight when McAlinden first sexually abused her during confession.
The senior clergyman replied on November 20, 2008. His heart was ”full of compassion” for her and she was ”constantly” in his prayers, he wrote. Learning her story was ”one of the saddest experiences of my life”. He had offered a Mass for her where he ”asked the Lord to give you a deep sense of peace and healing”. But there would be no meeting or apology.
In a separate letter to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese the senior clergyman made that abundantly clear. He had not been impressed by the ”totally inappropriate … hostile and obscene language” she had used in some emails to him. ”Her anger does not excuse or justify the use of such language in formal communications,” he wrote. ”Her issues should be directed to Maitland-Newcastle diocese and not to me. I do not propose to meet with her.”
History shows he should have. The woman kept complaining to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese. She wanted her apology from the clergyman. An increasingly frustrated diocese tried a compromise. It couldn’t get her an apology, but at least could give her some documents from McAlinden’s expansive file.
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