Senior Catholic Cleric Brian Lucas May Have Known Pedophile Priests Were Evading Justice
By Dan Box
A SENIOR Catholic cleric may have been aware of evidence suggesting two priests acquitted of child abuse offences in court were in fact guilty of such crimes, an inquiry has heard. Giving evidence to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into church child abuse, Brian Lucas also said he had not reported the men to police as many of their alleged victims did not want authorities involved. Reverend Lucas said the men were among dozens of pedophile priests he personally interviewed during the early 1990s. “I can think of one particular priest I interviewed who absolutely denied anything. He subsequently was charged, he was convicted by the jury, his conviction was overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal and no retrial. “I did understand that there had been other families who had made representations to the bishop, with which I was not involved at all, suggesting he would have been guilty,” Rev Lucas said. The inquiry has also heard another priest, Denis McAlinden, admitted to abusing children in conversation with Rev Lucas, who told the inquiry he could not remember their conversation. McAlinden was tried but not convicted of child abuse in Western Australia, the inquiry has heard. Rev Lucas did not report McAlinden, or any of the roughly 35 alleged pedophile priests he spoke to, to police, the inquiry heard, although he did convince most of the men to resign. “You would have been concerned ... that McAlinden would have evaded justice?” counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan, SC, asked Rev Lucas. “That was certainly a possibility,” he replied. Rev Lucas, the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said he did not report the men to police as many of their alleged victims did not want the police involved. Instead, he sought their resignation as a means of restricting their access to children in future. After McAlinden's resignation, the inquiry heard, the priest continued to dress as a priest, and to work for a Catholic diocese in the Philippines, where he had access to children. Rev Lucas said that did not mean his approach was a failure. “On the basis that there was in fact criminal behaviour in the Philippines and we've not seen any evidence that there was ... on that basis it would be a failure. “But, if in fact, after the day he walked out of speaking to me, he never offended again, then in that sense it was a success,” he told the inquiry. “It was a failure as to risk, I certainly agree with that,” he said.
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