Priests Prepare to Be Called up for Inquiry

By Calla Wahlquist
The Examiner
November 18, 2012

www.examiner.com.au/story/1128268/priests-prepare-to-be-called-up-for-inquiry/?cs=95


THE church organisation that ran Burnie's Marist Regional College when students were sexually abused is preparing to be called before the royal commission, the head of the Marist Fathers has said.

"I'm expecting the royal commission to be held all over Australia, and that when the Tasmanian part of it is held there will be a requirement for the Marist Fathers to participate," Marist provincial Paul Cooney said.

"Certainly, we will participate in any way that we are asked to."

Two Marist priests who taught at the school around the 1970s were charged in 2004 with sexually abusing students in their rooms at the school. Both men were convicted and have served time in jail.

In 2008, unordained trainee priest Paul Ronald Goldsmith, a volunteer sports coach at the college in the 1970s, was convicted of molesting about 20 boys.

The order has not played an active role in the school since handing over the reins to principal Susan Chen 10 years ago, and priests no longer teach.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse last week.

Father Cooney said he welcomed the commission and hoped it would help victims of sexual abuse.

"Hopefully, there will be a good outcome for the whole church and for the whole of society about these terribly important matters," he said.