New Ballarat Bishop Aims to Restore Faith in Catholic Church

By Margaret Burin
ABC Ballarat
October 17, 2012

http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2012/10/16/3611947.htm

[with audio]

Father Paul Bird has been ordained as the new bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat. He hopes to improve the image of the Catholic Church by showing it has changed the way it handles abuse allegations.

Sworn in with the presence of 30 bishops and 95 priests from around Australia and abroad, Father Bird is the eighth Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat.

His leadership role oversees a large part of central and western Victoria.

Music written by father Bird was used in the ordinance ceremony, which ended with a welcome parade outside St Patrick's Cathedral.

Father Bird joined the Redemptorist Order in 1968 and has since been doing missionary work, involving travel to New Zealand and parts of Asia.

Taking the position following revelations of large-scale abuse within the church, the new Ballarat bishop sees it as his role to reassure the community that the church has learnt from the way it mishandled allegations in the past.

He says abuse accusations should be handled by the police before the church undertakes its own investigations.

"We have a pastoral role to care for people, but certainly if there's the question of some possible crime, then that's best handled by the police and so we've been quite clear in more recent years that these matters should be referred to the police for their investigation."

He says the community and the church are now more alert to child abuse.

"I believe that we are responding more appropriately now and more sensitively recognising the hurt that's happened."

The Catholic Church in Victoria confirmed last month that there have been 620 recorded cases of child sexual abuse by clergy since the 1930s, many of which were in Ballarat.

Father Bird says many priests and religious leaders have been distressed by the actions of their colleagues and will respond in a caring way to people who have been hurt.

"Where trust has been lost by something that's done poorly, I think it can really only be restored by doing things properly."