NEWCASTLE (AUSTRALIA)
Catholic Herald
Sept. 12, 2019
By Joanne McCarthy
A HUNTER survivor advocate criticised for demanding an apology from Archbishop Philip Wilson after his conviction for concealing a priest’s child sex crimes has repeated the demand after a damning report into Catholic abuse responses in the Hunter.
Peter Gogarty said survivors of church abuse and the Hunter community had the right to an apology from the archbishop and Maitland-Newcastle diocese after a confidential 2014 report released last Friday revealed the extent of church knowledge of allegations involving paedophile priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher.
Archbishop Wilson in December successfully appealed his May, 2018 conviction for concealing allegations about Fletcher, but was strongly criticised in the confidential report for “improbable”, “unsatisfactory” and “implausible” evidence about his knowledge of allegations about McAlinden while a Hunter priest in the 1980s and 1990s.
Six days after the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet released the damning confidential fourth volume of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry final report there has been no response from Archbishop Wilson, Maitland-Newcastle diocese or Bishop Bill Wright.
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