Former Toowoomba Catholic bishop William Morris spoke with Pope...

By Michael Madigan
Courier Mail
February 24, 2014

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/former-toowoomba-catholic-bishop-william-morris-spoke-with-pope-benedict-in-attempt-to-keep-job/story-fnihsrf2-1226836007727

Former Catholic bishop of Toowoomba William Morris arrives at the child sex abuse royal commission in Brisbane.

THE Catholic Church has tried to silence a Toowoomba bishop who has revealed intimate details of his battle with the Vatican to keep his job after a pedophilia crisis erupted in one of his schools.

Former bishop William Martin Morris, describing himself as Emeritus Bishop of Toowoomba, has revealed details of a meeting with Pope Benedict in 2009 as he tried to hold on to the office he had occupied for nearly two decades.

Bishop Morris has not alleged his sacking was connected with the pedophilia case involving Gerard Vincent Byrnes, who raped and abused 13 girls at a Toowoomba Catholic primary school.

But Brisbane’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been told of speculation that Rome wanted to get rid of Bishop Morris because of his response to the Byrnes matter.

That response included admissions of responsibility and a subsequent $3 million payout to some of the victims in the civil courts.

Jane Needham, SC, for the Church, tried to stop Bishop Morris detailed exposure of how the Church went about removing him because of his liberal views on women’s ordination, and allowing confessions without direct contact with priests for sexual abuse victims.

“This is fascinating, but I have to query the relevance that it has to the subject matter that is before the royal commission as to the relevance of the conduct of Mr Byrnes,’’ Ms Needham said.

But counsel assisting, Gail Furness, SC, said there had been much speculation on the circumstances of the bishop’s “early retirement’’.

“And much of that speculation has been that it was because of his response to the claims of sexual assault at the school and also the sackings (of three employees),’’ Ms Furness said.

Bishop Morris has revealed Rome sent out an “Apostolic Visitor” from Rome several years to investigate him — possibly the only one sent to Australia’s in the Church’s 220-year history in Australia.

By 2009 he was in a one-to-one conversation with Pope Benedict in Rome in an attempt to hold on to his job.

“I was told I was too practical, charismatic, gifted, and my role was not as a Diocesian Bishop, but I could have a role some other place in the Church,’’ he said.

Bishop Morris said he continued to tell the Pope he would not resign, but appeared not to be understood.

“He must have misunderstood what I was saying.’’

He later came to understand there was no real process of appeal for a Bishop whom the Church wanted removed.

The Pope “hired and fired,’’ he said.

The inquiry continues.