AUSTRALIA
The Age
February 21, 2016
Steve Lillebuen
A former Ballarat bishop’s forthcoming evidence about what the Catholic Church knew about paedophile priests could be a “game changer”, according to a victims’ group.
But others fear Ronald Mulkearns, who has terminal cancer and been given only months to live, may end up taking his secrets to his grave.
The former bishop has been scheduled to give his long-awaited evidence to the child sex abuse royal commission this week when hearings begin again in Ballarat on Monday.
The city will be decorated in ribbons as residents show their public support for abuse survivors.
Bishop Mulkearns presided over the Ballarat parish between 1971 and 1997 – when priests facing child sex abuse allegations, including convicted paedophile priest Gerald Risdale, were moved between parishes. He has told his doctor his memory is vague and the commission has been warned his cognitive impairments mean he may not be able to effectively answer questions.
But victims’ group Broken Rites spokesman Wayne Chamley said Bishop Mulkearns had nothing to lose by being honest about what he knew.
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