AUSTRALIA
9 News
AAP
A Catholic priest who stayed silent when he heard a colleague had sexually abused a child says he would speak up if a priest stole money.
Victorian priest Fr Lawrence O’Toole has told an inquiry he thought a victim of Gerald Francis Ridsdale was confessing his guilt and shame when the man told him about the childhood abuse.
That was in 1988, while Ridsdale was still serving as a priest in the Diocese of Ballarat.
Fr O’Toole did not tell church authorities or police even though he admitted under questioning in the child abuse royal commission he knew it was wrong and a crime.
“I would believe that he was old enough and man enough to be able to do that himself,” he said.
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