Accused Priest Worked in Nz

Radio New Zealand
May 31, 2014

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/245955/accused-priest-worked-in-nz

In Australia, a Royal Commission has found the Catholic Church covered up allegations of child sexual abuse against a priest who was sent to work in New Zealand.

Father Denis McAlinden, who is now dead, is known to have abused dozens of young girls in Australia over nearly five decades.

He spent at least six months at a church in Gisborne in the 1960s.

In 2008, the Catholic Church wrote an open letter to Gisborne parishioners about the priest, after a woman came forward saying she'd been abused 24 years earlier.

The Royal Commission found that it took church officials in New South Wales more than 40 years to report any aspects of the priest's offending history to police.