Church failed to tell of paedophile priest

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Tom Allard
July 4, 2012

THREE of Australia’s most senior Catholic clergy failed to tell authorities of evidence they received that a priest had repeatedly sexually abused boys as young as 10 in New South Wales. Two of the victims committed suicide.

The three priests are Brian Lucas, secretary-general of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference; John Usher, the former head of the Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission; and Wayne Peters, the vicar-general of the Armidale diocese in NSW.

The priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told a court in 2004 he admitted to the three during a 1992 meeting that he had sexually molested boys.

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