AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Australian Associated Press
Friday 27 November 2015
The Melbourne archdiocese’s amateurish handling of complaints about a dangerous pedophile priest hurt a lot of people, a bishop says.
Former Melbourne archbishop Frank Little had a blind spot when it came to complaints about priests, his long-time second-in-command Bishop Peter Connors says.
The church failed to remove the gun-toting Doveton parish priest Peter Searson – described by a Catholic education staffer as “an extremely devious and dangerous man” – despite years of complaints.
“I would accept that certainly we responded in a very amateurish way and probably left a lot of people hurt,” Bishop Connors told the child abuse royal commission on Friday.
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