AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
ALEKS DEVIC HERALD SUN
DECEMBER 08, 2013
EXCLUSIVE: A FORMER bishop whose ill-health helped him avoid the sex-abuse inquiry is living independently and even holding mass at a picturesque coastal retreat.
Father Ronald Mulkearns moved priests, whom he knew had sexually abused boys, on to other parishes and ordered they have counselling rather than remove them from duties and report them to police.
In evidence, even Cardinal George Pell claimed Father Mulkearns had destroyed documents relating to child sexual abuse while serving as a Bishop of Ballarat.
Three decades of secrets from his tenure in Ballarat remain sealed because a doctor ruled he was unfit to give evidence to the parliamentary inquiry, stating a stroke had affected his memory and that he lacked focus.
But the Herald Sun tracked down Father Mulkearns, who still conducts mass, and found a coherent, active man.
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