Cleric convinced abusers to resign

By Dan Box
Australian
June 25, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/cleric-convinced-abusers-to-resign/story-fngburq5-1226965613269#

ONE of Australia’s most powerful Catholic officials has defended his practice of holding private, ­unrecorded conversations with priests accused of child-sex abuse in which he quietly convinced them to resign.

Giving evidence yesterday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Brian Lucas said the interviews, during which he kept no note of what was said, were “about the protection of children”.

It is the second public ­inquiry to interrogate Father Lucas, general secretary of the Australian National Catholic Bishops Conference, over the interviews.

In September, the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry heard he conducted interviews with about 35 allegedly abusive priests during the 1990s, convincing those who confessed their crimes to quietly resign their posts.