Bishop "Forever Sorry" over Qld Abuse

By Peter Smith
Daily Mail
April 20, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-3045972/Qld-bishop-face-questions.html

A retired Catholic bishop says he'll be "forever sorry" for the way he responded to former residents of an infamous central Queensland orphanage whose shocking stories of abuse were laid bare at a royal commission.

Retired Rockhampton bishop Brian Heenan told the sex abuse royal commission he felt "a terrible sense of shame and disgrace" at what happened to children at the St Joseph's Neerkol orphanage, near Rockhampton.

Former orphanage residents told a public hearing last week of suffering regular sexual abuse by priests, and of frequent sadistic beatings and other punishments meted out by nuns.

Bishop Heenan conceded before the commission on Friday that he failed to adequately respond to victims' allegations when they first emerged in the 1990s.

On Monday he addressed the victims directly in a statement outside the Rockhampton court house, where the public hearing is being held.

"I want to apologise again for the harm and the suffering of former St Joseph's Orphanage residents at the hands of the Catholic Church, priests and sisters and staff," he said.

"I also apologise for the way in which I responded to these victims.

"I failed them and for that I'll be forever sorry."

Abuse victim Mary Adams, who appeared before the inquiry last week, said she felt the bishop had "endeavoured to right the wrongs of the past".

Meanwhile, a senior member of the order of nuns than ran the Neerkol orphanage, told the inquiry she was sorry she didn't contact an abuse victim who in 1993 published a book about her experiences at Neerkol.

Institute leader of the Sisters of Mercy, Berneice Loch, admitted that after she became aware of the book she only contacted nuns who had worked at the orphanage and other former residents because she didn't fully believe the claims.

"I wasn't sure whether to credit the story or not," she told the commission on Monday.

"I was certainly not in a position to feel convinced that it was true."

Sister Loch is expected to return to the witness box when the public hearing resumes on Tuesday