AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX From: The Australian July 19, 2013
A SENIOR Catholic cleric has said a victim of a pedophile priest asked him to stop the man reoffending, but he could not as this responsibility lay only with his bishop and his committee, an inquiry has heard.
This committee included one of the most senior officials in the church today, Brian Lucas, as well as another cleric who cannot be named.
Giving evidence today to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into church child abuse, Monsignor Allan Hart said he was first approached by the victim in 1993.
The woman told him she had been abused by a priest, Denis McAlinden, as a young girl, and “I want to get him off the street and stop him reoffending”, he told the inquiry.
“She asked me to take it to the bishop,” Monsignor Hart said. It was not his role to respond personally to the woman’s request, he said, “as (the bishop) had his committee”.
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