Rome 'pulled strings' on complaints

Sky News
November 24, 2015

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2015/11/24/rome--pulled-strings--on-handling-abuse--inquiry.html

The Catholic Church in Rome pulled the strings and told Australian parishes how to handle child sex abuse complaints, a former priest says.

Frank Little, who was archbishop of Melbourne from 1974 and 1996, would try everything to avoid scandal and was particularly loyal to Rome, former priest Philip O'Donnell has told the child abuse royal commission.

'I personally think he had a misplaced loyalty to Rome when faced with the dilemma of how to handle this particular problem, and he made the wrong decision,' Mr O'Donnell told the inquiry on Tuesday.

'I don't think there's much doubt that Rome pulled the strings and instructed various parishes around Australia, around the world, how to handle the matter,' Mr O'Donnell said.

He said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made it clear it was their responsibility to handle abuse complaints, not the local bishop's.

'I could be completely and utterly wrong, but that's how I perceived it, that the decisions were made more in Rome than in Melbourne.'

More than 450 children have been sexually abused in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, mainly by priests, with the church paying $16.8 million in compensation since 1980, the child abuse royal commission says.

One was Fr Peter Searson, described by Mr O'Donnell as a bizarre human being who the commission heard indecently assaulted a girl during confession.

During his time at Doveton parish there were complaints about Searson carrying a hand gun at school, animal cruelty and showing a body in a coffin to children.

He had children sit on his knee or kneel between his legs during confession and frequented the boys' toilets, counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said.

Searson also held a large knife against a child's chest in 1993.

Ms Furness said there was no serious investigation of any complaint made about Searson during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Mr O'Donnell said Sunbury parish sisters told him Searson, who he described as a psychiatrically disturbed man, was taking children into his room for sex education.

Mr O'Donnell said he thought Searson would be dealt with but nothing was done, and then Archbishop Little did not act until he could avoid scandal.

'The archbishop, when given voluminous specific data on matters of scandal that would have damaged the church and the reputation of the church, chose not to act,' Mr O'Donnell said.

'And when he found an administrative reason that was non-scandalous, he acted - to use my word - ruthlessly or decisively.'

The archdiocese knew about abuse complaints against Fr Kevin O'Donnell as early as 1958 but Ms Furness said nothing was done to protect children to whom he had access as a priest.

Ms Furness said nothing was done after a 1986 complaint against Father Ronald Pickering and he continued to offend.