Church Receives Report on Abuse Response

Daily Telegraph
December 13, 2012

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/church-receives-report-on-abuse-response/story-e6freuz0-1226536396261

A REPORT by a former Federal Court judge on whether the Catholic Church appropriately managed sexual abuse allegations against a former NSW priest has been received by the church.

The Bishop of Armidale, Michael Kennedy, and the Bishop of Parramatta, Anthony Fisher, said in a joint statement that the report had been received on Thursday.

Antony Whitlam QC examined the history of appointments, ministry and activities and the way in which complaints by the alleged victims of the priest, known as Father F, were handled.

His report deals with the events leading to Father F's sacking from the ministry in 2005 and what happened during a meeting between Father F and senior Catholic figures in 1992.

The Armidale diocese said Father F had never made specific admissions when he met Sydney priests Father Lucas and Monsignor Usher Sydney in 1992.

But a third priest present at the meeting, Father Peters, wrote an account of the meeting in a private letter to the Armidale bishop, Father Manning, dated September 11, 1992.

In the letter, Fr Peters wrote that Father F had admitted to varying degrees of sexual interference with five boys around the age of 10 and 11 while he was an assistant priest at Moree between 1982 and 1984.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has previously rejected claims that senior priests failed to refer evidence about Father F to authorities.

NSW Police have been given the report and it will be made publicly available "as soon as practicable," the Bishops of Armidale and Parramatta said.

Father F, who was connected to the Parramatta and Armidale dioceses, allegedly abused altar boys during the 1980s.

The 59-year-old former priest was arrested at an Armidale home in October after an investigation into allegations that a priest based in the area sexually abused three girls in the 1970s and 1980s.

A NSW police taskforce is also investigating the allegations.