AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
IAN KIRKWOOD
2 Sep 2016
THE Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle has questioned why the Royal Commission is spending so much time on matters that happened decades ago when there was an “awful lot of stuff going on” now in broader society.
Bishop Bill Wright made the statement in the closing seconds of the pre-lunch session of the commission, after its chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, asked his response to the fact that 40 per cent of the abuse revealed to the commission in private sessions happened in Catholic institutions.
Justice McClellan said that despite this level of abuse, there were still people in the church who did not believe the spotlight should have been shone on the church as it has.
Bishop Wright said he himself wondered why so many of the case studies were “delving into matters of 30 or 40 years ago and I kind of wonder where the more contemporary spotlight should be fuelling”.
He said he knew it was the remit of of the commission to look at institutional responses but “I have this misgiving that there’s an awful lot of stuff going on out there now and we spend so much time on matters that happened decades ago”.
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