Vatican always sided with priests ...

By Dan Box
Australian
June 25, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/vatican-always-sided-with-priests-in-abuse-cases-archbishop-says/story-fngburq5-1226966445559?nk=915b84ea2a1fa8ba008aadbb686c64a6

Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson has told the abuse royal commission the Congregation for the Clergy always came down on the side of the priests involved.

Vatican always sided with priests in abuse cases, archbishop says

THE Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide has said the Vatican actively prevented bishops taking action against abusive priests during the late 1990s, and he considered appealing to the Pope or resigning his position over one such case.

Giving evidence this morning to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Philip Wilson said the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for the Clergy “always came down on the side of the priests” accused of child sex abuse.

“There was a phenomenon going on where bishops particularly in the US were trying to deal with these cases involving abuse and the Congregation for the Clergy consistently made things difficult for them in trying to do that,” Archbishop Wilson said.

“The Congregation for the Clergy always came down on the side of the priests and the instructions they gave to the bishops were (that) what they had done had to be put aside and the priest allowed back into ministry,” he said.

The commission is investigating the case of one allegedly abusive priest, John Gerard Nestor, who Archbishop Wilson barred from working publicly during his previous appointment as bishop of the Wollongong Diocese in NSW.

Mr Nestor appealed this ruling to the Congregation for the Clergy, which initially overturned it, “due to a lack of compliance, de procedendo, with the norms of the code of Canon Law,” the commission heard.

Archbishop Wilson said he had expected the decision, which took two years to be made, and had already planned to appeal it to a higher authority within the Vatican.

“I was also concerned at the notion that I would be required to restore Father Nestor to ministry when I believed in conscience that to do so would be a risk to children,” Archbishop Wilson told the commission.

“Since I was bound in conscience in this case, I would take the matter all the way to the Pope if necessary,” he said.

“I felt so strongly about this matter that in the unlikely event that he compelled me to restore Father Nestor to ministry, I knew that I would be unable to do so and I would in conscience have no option but to resign.”

Eventually, after another appeal process lasting several years, the Vatican overturned its own previous decision and Mr Nestor was ultimately forced to step down from the priesthood, the commission heard.