I'M Not Sure I'M Still a Christian, Anglican Priest Pat Comben Says

By Dan Box
The Australian
November 25, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/pedophile-remained-on-anglican-diocese-register-of-priests/story-fngburq5-1226767880350

Former registrar of the Grafton Diocese, Pat Comben has quit, saying he is no longer sure he can call himself a christian. - See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/pedophile-remained-on-anglican-diocese-register-of-priests/story-fngburq5-1226767880350#sthash.iQzfzyir.dpuf

THE priest who was at the centre of handling a group claim from abuse victims at an Anglican Church children's home in NSW has quit, saying he is no longer sure he call himself a Christian.

Former registrar of the Grafton Diocese, Pat Comben said he had taken the view that he had some guilt and responsibility in the mishandling of the claims by 42 former residents of the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore who suffered shocking sexual and physical abuse.

He said on Monday he was quitting because history is being re-written by some members of the church.

Mr Comben said he had signed the letter of holy orders relinquishment outside the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse on Friday. That was just before he took the stand to give evidence into the diocese's handling of allegations by former residents of the home.

"Fifty years in the Church and I do not know if I can even say I am a Christian," said Mr Comben outside the commission on Monday after he had completed two days of evidence.

"Some of us have some guilt and take some responsibility for this," said Mr Comben who was a minister in the Queensland government in the 1990s.

Mr Comben said if he did not take the line he did and keep compensation low, he would have been sacked.

On Monday the commission heard that Mr Comben had driven the hardline that the diocese took in dealing with requests for an apology and compensation from people who had suffered beatings and rape when they were housed in the Lismore home.

Over two years of negotiation with victims, he misled them on the true financial state of the diocese, the commission has heard.

Giving evidence this morning to the Royal Commission, the former registrar of the Mr Comben spoke of how he and other senior Anglican clerics jokingly referred to the official directory of serving priests as a "stud book''.

"I became aware that (a convicted pedophile) Reverend Kitchingman, as he was, was still in the stud book ... I got a shock to find he was there.

"I remember getting up from my desk, walking in to the bishop and saying 'Kitchingman's still in the stud book'," Mr Comben told the commission.

At the time, around 2006, the northern NSW diocese was dealing with dozens of claims of physical and sexual abuse at a local children's home at which Reverend Kitchingman had previously been employed.

When asked about his use of "stud book" - which lists a horse's pedigree for breeding purposes - to describe the Anglican Directory of serving priests, Mr Comben immediately apologised to the commission.

"It is totally inappropriate in these proceedings, I apologise," he said.

Mr Comben also told the commission that he subsequently took no disciplinary action against Reverend Kitchingman or another alleged pedophile priest at the home, Campbell Brown.

"I did nothing at all (about Kitchingman)," he told the commission. "I think we were too busy to take him on."