AUSTRALIA
The Australian
SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 24, 2014
THE Catholic Bishop of Toowoomba says he was forced into early retirement by Pope Benedict and the Vatican, denying his request for more time to support child sex abuse victims.
Former Toowoomba Bishop Bill Morris has today frankly described to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse his battle with the Vatican between 2006 and 2011.
Bishop Morris was at the helm of the southern Queensland diocese when pedophile teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes abused and raped 13 eight to ten-year-old girls at a Toowoomba primary school in 2007 and 2008.
The Royal Commission is investigating the “catastrophic” abuse at the school, most of which occurred after principal Terence Hayes failed to report an initial sexual abuse complaint against Byrnes to the police in September 2007.
Bishop Morris said his dispute with the Vatican and the Pope had earlier roots and was unrelated to the child sex abuse scandal. He said he drew ire in November 2006 when he wrote an open letter about priest shortages, discussing the possibility of the ordination of women and married or widowed men — practices that are not allowed under Catholic canon law.
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