AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
November 24, 2015
Beau Donelly
Top church officials in Rome called the shots on how to deal with child sex abuse cases involving Catholic clergy in Melbourne, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has heard.
Former Melbourne priest Philip O’Donnell testified on Tuesday that he believed Australian archbishops were under strict instructions about how to handle child abuse allegations.
“I don’t think there’s much doubt that Rome pulled the strings and instructed various bishops around Australia and around the world how to handle the matter,” he said.
“The consistency of the response from diocese to diocese … I just heard bishop after bishop say the same phrases and it just – you just started to see there was a common script, in my opinion, on how the matter was being dealt with.”
Mr O’Donnell said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made it clear it was their responsibility to handle abuse complaints and that former Archbishop Frank Little had “misplaced loyalty” to Rome when faced with how to deal with the sex abuse scandal.
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