AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By Peter Gogarty June 23, 2014
IN the NSW Parliament recently, Barry O’Farrell, the man who established the Special Commission of Inquiry into certain matters regarding two paedophile priests in the Hunter Valley, rose to his feet and gave the Catholic Church, its bishops and Father Brian Lucas a spanking regarding their lame response to Commissioner Margaret Cuneen’s report and findings.
Pushed by a number of journalists, and by the Newcastle Herald in particular, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference subsequently made a brief statement on June 18.
It said: “Father Lucas has the support of the bishops because the report did not make adverse findings as to credit, nor did it recommend any action be taken with respect of Father Lucas.”
Around about the same time as this was unfolding, Father Lucas was giving evidence before the national royal commission, and for those of us who saw his evidence at the Special Commission of Inquiry, there was a sense of déjà vu.
It was almost as if Father Lucas was reading from his own transcript – he didn’t keep notes so that the “interviewee” would not be put off from making admissions, conceded that a consequence of his actions was that there was no “paper trail” that might be used in later police prosecutions, didn’t remember a particular offender but conceded he probably interviewed him, didn’t go to the police because victims would not have wanted him to, and so on.
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