DISGRACED Priest Won Os Job: Inquiry

9 News
July 24, 2013

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/07/24/18/45/no-notes-on-talks-with-pedophile-priests

A paedophile NSW priest stripped of his authority allegedly pretended to be a cleric and became a school chaplain in the Philippines.

The claim has been revealed at an inquiry examining how church leaders and police handled reports of child sexual abuse by fathers Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher in the Hunter region of NSW.

Barrister assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan, said Fr McAlinden wrote to Maitland-Newcastle bishop Leo Clarke in 1995 claiming to have heard "no less than 10,000 confessions" in six months working in the Philippines' San Pablo diocese.

In the letter, Fr McAlinden said he had made admissions of "past failings" to senior NSW Catholic priest Brian Lucas but, through prayer, was no longer that way inclined.

Fr Lucas, who was questioned at the commission on Wednesday about his 1993 involvement in a process to have Fr McAlinden's religious authority removed, was asked by Ms Lonergan what he thought about Fr McAlinden's access to children while in the Philippines.

"I read that and I think it's a fantasy," Fr Lucas said.

Fr Lucas told the Supreme Court in Newcastle he found it staggering that Fr McAlinden was pretending to be a priest and had access to children in the Philippines.

When asked if the removal of religious authority had failed, Fr Lucas said: "In this particular instance, yes".

Fr Lucas said he did not know why Philippines Catholic leaders did not check Fr McAlinden's religious credentials.

"It's most extraordinary, I could never have foreseen that," he said.

Fr Lucas became a barrister before being ordained a priest in 1979 and in the 1990s helped write Catholic church protocol for dealing with criminal behaviour by church representatives.

For six years to the end of 1996, he and another senior priest, John Usher, travelled throughout NSW and the ACT meeting with priests accused of child sexual assault and encouraged them to leave the priesthood.

He said after discussions with paedophile priests he reported what was said to their superior bishops and left it to them and their advisors to take whatever action they considered appropriate.

Fr Lucas said he did not report Fr McAlinden's admissions to police as a victim he spoke to did not want police involvement.

He did not take notes when speaking to accused priests as he believed they would not tell him anything if he did.

The inquiry, before commissioner Margaret Cunneen, continues on Thursday.