AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

December 13, 2015

Louise Hall
Court Reporter

A priest accused of serious sexual misconduct with a “vulnerable” woman is challenging the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing procedures in a landmark legal case.

An internal Church assessment concluded the priest had sexually assaulted the woman and he has been stood aside from from his role.

However the priest has taken the Church to the NSW Supreme Court, arguing for the matter to be dealt with via canon law processes that were superseded by the Towards Healing regime in the mid-1990s.

In a preliminary judgment handed down this month, Associate Justice Joanne Harrison said the case is the first time the Towards Healing principles and protocols, introduced in 1996 to deal with sexual abuse complaints, have been challenged in court.

Prior to 1996, complaints of abuse were dealt with under canon law, the internal body of law governing…