AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
JOANNE MCCARTHY
1 Sep 2016
HE was the Catholic bishop whose term in office started in 1995 with two of the Hunter’s most notorious paedophile priests, was dominated for 16 years by “quite explosive local problems of historical abuse”, and ended with his request for early retirement, exhausted by the struggle within his own church.
In the witness box at the royal commission on Thursday, retired Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone said he reached a point where “You either had to try to defend the church or you had to try to serve the needs of survivors, and I chose the latter”.
Royal commission chair Justice Peter McClellan responded with the question at the heart of the child sexual abuse crisis within the Catholic Church – “Why was it ever a choice?”
Bishop Malone gave evidence for the second time in three years about his response to child sexual abuse allegations in the diocese. On Thursday he was questioned about paedophile priest Vince Ryan. In 2013, at the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry, it was about priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher.
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