AUSTRALIA
SBS News
December 18, 2017
A Bishop has vowed an elderly priest who was released from a NSW prison after being convicted of abusing young girls won’t return to his parish.
The Bishop of Broken Bay has promised his community that a paedophile priest released from a NSW prison won’t be allowed to return to his former parish.
Catholic priest Finian Egan was released from Long Bay Prison on Tuesday morning after serving four years of an eight-year sentence for raping and abusing young girls for nearly three decades.
Coinciding with his release, the Diocese of Broken Bay has begun the process of laicisation, more commonly known as “defrocking”, by presenting its case to Rome to have the 83-year-old stripped of his priesthood.
If successful, Egan will no longer be regarded as a priest and the church will no longer be responsible for him.
“These processes can be complex given that the one Roman office deals with all requests that are submitted from all over the world,” the Bishop of Broken Bay the Most Reverend Peter Comensoli explained in a statement on Tuesday.
While Egan has the right to argue his case, the bishop has already used his power to immediately dismiss him from the public ministry.
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.