NEWCASTLE, NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
Newcastle Herald
October 21, 2017
By Joanne McCarthy
A Papua New Guinea Catholic bishop says he will reinstate an Australian Vincentian priest to a PNG high school despite a police investigation of allegations involving school students, and a church investigation confirming the priest touched students’ legs and sometimes slapped them.
Bishop Rolando Santos said Australian Vincentian priest Neil Lams was “firm, upright and committed” and he was not changing the priest’s assignment as chaplain to the PNG school. The bishop reserved the right to take defamation action against people, including school teachers, who complained about the priest’s behaviour.
A church investigation report, which Bishop Santos supplied to the Newcastle Herald, found no evidence to support allegations Father Lams sexually abused two female students at a Catholic high school in eastern PNG.
But investigators for the PNG Catholic Church Office of Right Relationships in Ministry found evidence of confessional “incidents”, where Father Lams touched students on the legs and asked questions about sex that left students “embarrassed or scared or hurt or surprised”.
Photo Caption – Criticism: Port Stephens woman Wendy Stein and Vincentian Bishop Rolando Santos in Papua New Guinea. Bishop Santos has criticised Ms Stein for reporting sexual abuse allegations to police.
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