AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Dan Box
From:The Australian
August 02, 2012
THE Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide’s claim that he urged parents of children abused by an alleged pedophile priest to inform the police has been directly challenged by a teacher and the mother of one of the alleged victims.
Before he became archbishop, Philip Wilson was the first senior church official to investigate allegations that Father Denis McAlinden was abusing girls in Merriwa, in country NSW.
The mother of one of the priest’s alleged victims said she was interviewed last year by detectives investigating what NSW police describe as “alleged cover-ups by current and former senior members of the Catholic church” relating to McAlinden.
“When I went to the police station they brought out a piece of paper that I had signed. It said I had met with Bishop Wilson and he’d discussed the issue,” the woman said. “I can’t remember signing it. There is no way – I would swear on a stack of Bibles – that I met Bishop Wilson.”
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