AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail
Former Toowoomba Catholic bishop William Morris spoke with Pope Benedict in attempt to keep job
MICHAEL MADIGAN THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 24, 2014
THE Catholic Church has tried to silence a Toowoomba bishop who has revealed intimate details of his battle with the Vatican to keep his job after a pedophilia crisis erupted in one of his schools.
Former bishop William Martin Morris, describing himself as Emeritus Bishop of Toowoomba, has revealed details of a meeting with Pope Benedict in 2009 as he tried to hold on to the office he had occupied for nearly two decades.
Bishop Morris has not alleged his sacking was connected with the pedophilia case involving Gerard Vincent Byrnes, who raped and abused 13 girls at a Toowoomba Catholic primary school.
But Brisbane’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been told of speculation that Rome wanted to get rid of Bishop Morris because of his response to the Byrnes matter.
That response included admissions of responsibility and a subsequent $3 million payout to some of the victims in the civil courts.
Jane Needham, SC, for the Church, tried to stop Bishop Morris detailed exposure of how the Church went about removing him because of his liberal views on women’s ordination, and allowing confessions without direct contact with priests for sexual abuse victims.
“This is fascinating, but I have to query the relevance that it has to the subject matter that is before the royal commission as to the relevance of the conduct of Mr Byrnes,’’ Ms Needham said.
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