A 92-year-old Sydney Priest Is Charged with Buggery of a Child from 40 Years Ago

Broken Rites
January 22, 2015

http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/343

A Catholic priest, Father Theodore Arrivoli (now aged 92), who has ministered in many parishes around the Sydney region during the past 60 years, was charged in court on 15 January 2015 regarding alleged sexual assaults of two children near Sydney in the 1970s. The alleged offences include buggery.

This court hearing was a "first mention" procedure, with a magistrate in the Penrith Local Court, north-west of Sydney. This was a brief administrative process for the charges to be officially filed in court. Father Arrivoli has not yet been required to indicate how he will plead in answer to the charges.

The Arrivoli case will come up again in the Penrith court in March 2015 for a further mention to consider the subsequent steps in the judicial process. The main proceedings would be held on a later date.

In March 2014, police investigators from Hawkesbury Local Area Command, acting on information received about alleged sexual assault matters involving children, commenced investigations.

On 26 November 2014, detectives spoke with the 92-year-old retired priest about the alleged offences against two boys. Police allege that these offences occurred between 1973 and 1974, when the priest was in his early fifties.

The 92-year-old man was served a court attendance notice (for 15 January 2015) for four counts of buggery and one count of attempted buggery.

The charges were announced by New South Wales Police on 27 November 2014. The police media release was headed: "Police charge Catholic Priest - Richmond".

Broken Rites has searched through old printed editions of the annual Australian Catholic Directory to compile a list of parishes in which Father Theo Arrivoli served. He was ordained as a priest in 1952. Most of his career was spent in the Sydney archdiocese, although his most recent parishes were in the western suburbs which were formed into a separate diocese (now called the Parramatta Diocese) in 1986.

Broken Rites found that Father Theo Arrivoli's parishes (in chronological order) have included Bondi Beach, North Ryde, Forest Lodge/Glebe, Pennant Hills, Mount Pritchard, Auburn, Liverpool, Pyrmont, Richmond, Baulkham Hills and Lawson.

His Richmond parish (St Monica's) was in 1972 - 1985. Richmond is 65 kilometres north-west of Sydney in the Hawkesbury Region.

His next parish ("Our Lady of Lourdes", in Baulkham Hills South, 30 kilometres north-west of Sydney) was in 1985-1998.

His final parish (1998-2010) was "Our Lady of the Nativity" at Lawson, in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

After retiring from full-time parish work in 2010, he was still a priest and was listed in the Australian Catholic Directory in 2011 as Reverend Theo Arrivoli, living in a home-unit in Baulkham Hill (several other priests have a unit in the same building). The Directory listed him under the heading of "Supplementary Clergy", which includes priests who might still be available to relieve a parish priest who is sick or away.

According to the 2013 directory, Father Theo Arrivoli has received a papal award, called "Croce pro Ecclesia et Pontifice".

Father Arrivoli was not listed in the 2014 edition of the Directory.

The NSW Police media release on 27 November 2014 (about the charging of the 92-year-old man) stated:

"Investigators are encouraging any victim of any indecent or sexual assault, no matter how long ago, to come forward and report the matter.

"Police are urging anyone with information in relation to this incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page: https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au/

"Information you provide will be treated in the strictest of confidence. We remind people they should not report crime information via our Facebook and Twitter pages."