Abuser priests were ‘ticking time bombs’

AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

AAP

THE Catholic Church knew pedophile priests were ticking time bombs but covered up their evil deeds to protect its reputation, former church leaders admit.

MINUTES of a special issues committee meeting at a 1992 Australian Catholic Bishops Conference reveal: “It was agreed that there are serious time bombs ticking away in a number of diocese at the present time.”

Former Melbourne archdiocese vicar-general Bishop Peter Connors said there were time bombs ticking away in a number of dioceses including Melbourne’s Doveton parish, where a succession of pedophile priests were sent from the 1970s to the 1990s.

“That would certainly be the case I think particularly in the Diocese of Ballarat, the big time bomb was ticking away there,” Bishop Connors told the child abuse royal commission.

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