AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (posted 20 January 2014)
Broken Rites can cite a recent Australian case to demonstrate how the Vatican takes a lenient attitude towards the church’s sexual abuse of children. In 2006 the Vatican “punished” one Australian priest by ordering him “to live a life of prayer and penance and to offer Mass every Friday for his victims”.
This was despite him admitting to numerous “crimes”, Australia’s national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has been told.
At a public hearing in Sydney on 19 December 2013, the royal commission was told that this person is still listed as a priest of the diocese of Lismore in northern New South Wales.
These revelations came during evidence by the Bishop of Lismore, Geoffrey Jarrett. The bishop was being questioned by the senior barrister assisting the royal commission, Ms Gail Furness.
The priest’s name was suppressed during the royal commission hearing and it has been deleted from the published transcript (on pages 3390 to 3394, dated 19 December 2013, available on the commission’s website).
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.