AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
Editorial
September 5, 2016
THE pain suffered by the victims of child sexual abuse while Bishop Ronald Mulkearns was in charge of the Catholic diocese of Ballarat has reached out from beyond the grave, as reported in today’s Herald Sun.
But, this time, the Catholic Church has the opportunity to at least alleviate some of the pain caused by the will of the late Bishop, who has left a rich estate to the church to do with as it pleases.
There were years of silence before Bishop Mulkearns admitted that he shuffled paedophile priests around his parishes, in spite of knowing about their crimes against the most vulnerable members of their flocks.
The bishop, who died in April, left a property estimated at $2.1 million and about $40,000 in cash to be used by current Bishop Paul Bird “for the benefit of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat at his absolute discretion’’.
The Herald Sun has asked Bishop Bird what he intends to do with the money. We believe it should at the very least be put towards the compensation fund to give some financial recognition of the abuse they have suffered. We are yet to receive a response.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.