Church believed pedophile priests who apologised could be cured, inquiry told

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS
The Daily Telegraph
September 09, 2013

Australia’s Catholic bishops took some convincing that even if a pedophile priest said he was sorry, he was more than likely to offend again, the NSW church child abuse inquiry has been told today.

“We had to convince church leaders that they had to come to terms with this,” Father John Usher said.

He said it had been a steep learning curve to learn about the way pedophiles operated.

Father Usher, a former member of the NSW Child Protection Council and currently Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Sydney, is giving evidence as the inquiry gets to the heart of its investigation.

The commission chaired by Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC is sitting in Sydney after weeks in Newcastle.

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