Bishop Felt Obliged to Defend the Church

ABC - Lateline
July 12, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3802364.htm

[with video]

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The former Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle has told a NSW inquiry into alleged abuse by the clergy that he felt compelled by Church culture to play down the problem.

Bishop Michael Malone today said there'd been resistance from some priests to confront the issue.

Until 2011 Bishop Malone was head of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese for 16 years.

It has been one of the worst centres of clergy sexual abuse against children with hundreds of victims and at least 14 priests either charged, convicted or under investigation.

Suzie Smith reports from Newcastle.

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTER: Bishop Malone began his testimony with an admission that he never warned the bishops in Western Australia that a known paedophile priest was living in their state in the early 2000's.

Father Denis McAlinden was a predatory paedophile for more than four decades, according to internal Church files.

The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle had tried to remove him from the priesthood in 1995. However the process was never completed and Bishop Malone says they often lost track of his whereabouts.

In another important revelation, Bishop Malone confirmed that he'd given approval for the release of confidential Church documents to one of McAlinden's victims known as "A.L."

He said he did it to show A.L. how much the Church was trying to stop Denis McAlinden from re-offending.

Instead the released documents sparked significant investigations, including the current special commission of inquiry.

Counsel Assisting the Special Commission, Julia Lonergan SC, questioned whether he had broken Canon law or Church law by releasing the documents.

JULIA LONERGAN, SENIOR COUNSEL ASSISTING THE COMMISSION (female voiceover): "You are aware, are you not, that the requirement (under Canon Law) relating to these confidential documents … including the requirement that in the Diocesan Curia there is a secret archive … there will be a safe or a cabinet which is securely closed or bolted which can't be removed?"

MICHAEL MALONE, RETIRED BISHOP (male voiceover): "Yes."

JULIA LONERGAN (female voiceover): "Each year, documents of criminal cases concerning moral matters are to be destroyed whenever the guilty party has died or 10 years have elapsed since a condemnatory sentence concluded the affair?"

MICHAEL MALONE (male voiceover): "No, I didn't destroy any documents in my time as a bishop … perhaps I should have …. they are all here!"

SUZIE SMITH: Following Bishop Malone's joke about the documents, he gave this insight into his own behaviour as a bishop:

MICHAEL MALONE (male voiceover): "As a priest for nearly 50 years and a bishop for nearly 20 years you are caught up in the whole ethos and since you are serving the Church … there is a tendency naturally to want to defend the organization to which you belong. ... I was conscious of the fact that those issues of sexual abuse were in fact impinging on the stability of the Church and I regretted that in my earlier time I tried to prevent that from causing damage to the Church by trying to play it down a bit, perhaps a little."

SUZIE SMITH: Bishop Malone then spoke of his epiphany after 2004 when he realised just how vulnerable the victims were. He said he made an apology in 2008 because he could no longer sit on the fence and defend the Church on one hand, but also look after the victims of child sex abuse on the other.

JULIA LONERGAN (female voiceover): "Did you find that to be a difficult thing because of the Church culture and the closeted environment relating to it?"

MICHAEL MALONE (male voiceover): "I did, because that was still alive and well in many sections of the Church, but I came to the conclusion around that time that I couldn't sit on the fence."

JULIA LONERGAN (female voiceover): "Did you encounter any resistance from priests in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese to the whole matter of child sex abuse amongst the clergy?"

MICHAEL MALONE (male voiceover): "The resistance was never overt, but I sensed it by some."

JULIA LONERGAN (female voiceover): "And did that resistance you sensed, improve with time or not."

MICHAEL MALONE (male voiceover): "I'd say not."

SUZIE SMITH: The inquiry continues on Monday with more senior Church officials to give their evidence.

Suzie Smith, Lateline.