Bishop Brian Heenan Regrets Handling of Child Abuse at Queensland Orphanage

By Michael Madigan
Perth Now
April 17, 2015

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/national/bishop-brian-heenan-regrets-handling-of-child-abuse-at-queensland-orphanage/story-fnii5v6y-1227308524681

A RETIRED senior Queensland cleric has admitted the Catholic Church failed victims of sexual abuse in the Rockhampton diocese.

Bishop Brian Heenan made significant admissions during a day on the witness stand at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse in Rockhampton.

Bishop Heenan, in charge of the diocese during the ’90s as the scandal erupted, admitted he put the Catholic Church’s reputation before his duty to listen to victims — including those abused at the notorious Neerkol orphanage.

He admitted to Counsel Assisting Sophie David, SC, that he allowed pedophile priest Reg Durham to continue working with children when he knew he had sexually abused a child.

Bishop Heenan also accepted a proposition at the core of the Commission’s terms of reference: that the Church failed to respond adequately to abuse charges.

“I do not think it was wholly inadequate, but I do regard it as inadequate,’’ he said.

Bishop Heenan, who wrote a widely circulated letter in 1996 dismissing the Neerkol accusations as “scurrilous” and “scandalous,” expressed deep regret about his actions.

“I will regret having written this letter for the rest of my days,’’ he said.

Bishop Brian Heenan regrets how he handled the allegations.

“I was acting, wrongly, to a lot of very bad publicity about the orphanage which I believed was not all true.’’

Bishop Heenan later apologised for the letter and supported many victims of abuse at Neerkol, explaining that he did not at first comprehend the extent of the abuse.

He agreed with Ms David that he wrote that letter because his priority was protecting the Catholic Church.

The Commission has heard four days of extraordinary evidence about a range of alleged abuses and serious crimes committed at Saint Joseph’s Orphanage at Neerkol between 1940 and 1975.

Bishop Heenan said he had no experience or training in dealing with abuse allegations when he became Bishop in July 1991, and admitted his handling of the situation was flawed.

He struggled to explain how he could allow Father Durham, whom he knew had sexually abused a Rockhampton girl, to remain on Church pay while openly interacting with parishioners, including children, in the ’90s.

Durham, now deceased, was allowed to continue teaching religion to primary school children for more than two years after several people came forward with claims he’d abused them as chaplain at the Neerkol orphanage in the 1960s and 1970s.

But he wasn’t forced to resign as a church employee until he was formally charged in 1997.

Bishop Heenan knew that Father Durham was accused of a sexual relationship with the young parishioner.

The diocese and Sisters of Mercy, who ran Neerkol orphanage, have jointly paid almost $791,000 to 72 former residents in an out-of-court settlement.

Bishop Heenan will appear again at the Commission at 10am on Monday.

The hearing into historical allegations of child abuse at the Neerkol St Joseph’s Orphanage near Rockhampton, which was operated by the Sisters of Mercy until 1978, is expected to conclude next week.