AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)
By Australian Associated Press and Nelson Groom for Daily Mail Australia
One of Australia’s most senior Catholic priests believes it is inappropriate to ask priests about their sex lives before they are accused of abuse.
Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that a bishop’s relationship with a priest is ‘delicate’.
When asked how the church allowed more than 4,000 Australian children to be allegedly abused, he said there are ‘certain things’ the head of the diocese are not entitled to know about the clergy.
‘How would I justifiably inquire of a priest what his sexual behaviour was when it hadn’t emerged into the public forum and become a problem in the community which he was supposed to lead?’ he said in Sydney on Wednesday.
‘I have no right to ask those questions or, if I do, to expect an answer.’
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