Father Tom Knowles loses right to minister following sex admission, by Joanne Mccarthy, Newcastle Herald (September 10, 2014)

A CATHOLIC priest who admitted having regular secret sex with a woman, despite his vow of celibacy, has been stripped of his right to minister as a priest.

Father Tom Knowles had his faculties removed after the Church acknowledged Central Coast woman Jennifer Herrick had ‘‘endured a great deal of emotional and psychological pain and suffering’’ because of the secret relationship.

‘‘This is permanent and he cannot minister publicly as a priest again, either in Melbourne or anywhere else in the Catholic Church,’’ Father Graeme Duro, the head of Father Knowles’s order, the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, said.

The priest’s right to minister in public was withdrawn last year but only confirmed to the Newcastle Herald by the Church this week.

The action was taken by Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart after Ms Herrick complained about the devastating impact of the secret relationship on her life.

Her landmark NSW Supreme Court breach of trust case against the priest will be heard at a later date. In a defence filed with the court last week, Father Knowles admitted they had had regular sex over a lengthy period.

In a separate case, the head of a second Catholic order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, has met with a Hunter family and made a financial settlement towards the care of a former Hunter nun who was a priest’s sexual partner from the age of 15.

The priest, Father Noel Geraghty, died in 2005 without the long-term relationship being acknowledged in public by the Church, although it confirmed it in writing to the nun’s family.

There is evidence that the former nun, 70, who has been in care from the age of 63 because of dementia, was not the priest’s only female sexual partner.

The former nun’s brother, a retired teacher who lives in the Hunter, said forbidden, secret and abusive relationships with adult women were the Catholic Church’s new crisis.

‘‘There are so many women out there in this position,’’ the former nun’s brother said.

Father Geraghty’s order has paid for regular support for the former nun for the next three years.