AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
BEN PIKE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 25, 2014
ONE of the Catholic Church’s most senior priests did not take notes after confronting accused pedophiles in the clergy because he did not want to “betray” them.
Father Brian Lucas has already come under fire from former premier Barry O’Farrell who, in parliament, called for him to be sacked because he did not report pedophile priests to the police.
Yesterday he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that taking notes during meetings with accused priests would have prevented them from speaking “frankly and openly”.
“I don’t think that’s fair to a person. If you’ve said to him ‘we’re having a frank conversation, this is confidential’, I’m not going to take a note of it,’’ the trained lawyer said.
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