AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
December 15, 2015
Jane Lee
Legal affairs, health and science reporter
The former Bishop of Ballarat struggles to sleep at night and is “profoundly sorry” for moving priests accused of child sexual abuse to different parishes, one of his former advisers has told a royal commission.
Ronald Mulkearns, the Bishop of Ballarat between 1971 and 1997, presided over decisions to move priests, including paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, between parishes in the diocese, despite child sexual abuse allegations against them.
He was to attend the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the past fortnight, but was excused from testifying as he is currently receiving palliative care.
A number of his former advisers have testified that he often decided on the appointments of such priests without providing explanation or seeking their approval.
One of his former advisers, Father John McKinnon, told the commission on Tuesday that he had started visiting Bishop Mulkearns “from time to time” in the past year but had not discussed this period with him because his “memory is much worse than mine, so it’s useless doing it.”
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