Catholic Church paedophile networks to be mapped ‘like organised crime’ by academics

AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

February 4, 2021

By Giselle Wakatama

A “mafia-like” code of silence among “dark networks” within the Catholic Church has begun to emerge from a world-first project mapping clerical paedophile networks, says an academic behind the project.

The research builds on work done by Sally Muytjens, one of Dr Death’s doctoral students, who mapped Catholic paedophile networks in Victoria.

The mapping will now include other hotspots such as Newcastle and the role of women in the church, nuns and seminaries.

The Victorian project identified 99 clergy members as abusers linked to 16 paedophile networks in the Melbourne and Ballarat dioceses.

It found there was a “mafia-like” code of silence among clergy perpetrators who formed dark networks (DNs) within the Victorian Catholic Church.

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