Ballarat Abuse Victims Get Their Say

SBS
May 4, 2015

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/05/04/ballarat-abuse-victims-get-their-say


The Catholic Church's failures in dealing with some of Australia's worst pedophiles will be laid out before the abuse royal commission when it sits in the Victorian town of Ballarat this month.

Church representatives and even clergy who have been convicted of child sex abuse will be called before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Victims still scarred by the abuse will have the chance to tell their stories while residents are expected to give evidence about the impact of child sexual abuse on the Ballarat community.

The royal commission public hearing, beginning on May 19, will also hear about the response of church authorities to the sexual abuse and its impact on victims, and to the conviction of clergy members for child sex abuse.

The church has admitted the former bishop of Ballarat made a "tragic mistake" by not removing one of Australia's worst pedophiles when he became aware of sexual abuse allegations against the priest.

Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew about complaints against Father Gerald Ridsdale as early as 1975 but let him remain as a priest and moved him to other parishes, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry heard in 2013.

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird told the child abuse inquiry Ridsdale should have been taken out of the ministry when there was a first report of offences.

Another former Ballarat bishop, Peter Connors, agreed the church had effectively facilitated sexual offences against children by putting a known offender in positions that enabled him to continue his abuse.

The Christian Brothers told the Victorian inquiry it was an "accident of history" that four pedophiles taught at Ballarat's St Alipius Primary School in the 1970s.

Between 1971 and 1974, brothers Robert Best, Edward Dowlan, Stephen Farrell and Gerald Fitzgerald were the only male teachers at the school. All, except Fitzgerald, are convicted pedophiles.

The Christian Brothers admit Fitzgerald, who is dead, was also a pedophile.

The royal commission expects to hold a second public hearing in Ballarat beginning on a date to be announced.