AUSTRALIA
Hume Weekly
By HELEN GRIMAUX
April 9, 2013
DISCONTENT is spreading among parishioners of the Church of the Good Shepherd at Gladstone Park after the “sudden” resignation of much-loved priest Father Victor Buhagiar at the start of this year.
A petition signed by more than 300 of the congregation has been sent to Melbourne Archbishop Dennis Hart on the eve of the Catholic Church’s very public expose before the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse.
The petition follows several letters to Archbishop Hart from parishioners, who claim Fr Buhagiar has been forced out because of his tough stance on child abuse and his belief that there is an ongoing cover-up of illegal behaviour involving the Melbourne priesthood.
This has been denied by the archbishop.
“Father Buhagiar has claimed that he was forced to resign against his will, that he resigned in protest ‘over the way the truth is being handled’, and also that he ‘resigned quietly’ as a circuit breaker,” Archbishop Hart told The Weekly.
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