AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX
From: The Australian
September 23, 2013
ONE of Australia’s worst pedophile priests was brought from Ireland at the request of his former Catholic order, which warned he was difficult, bad-tempered and should be kept away from other people.
Documents tendered to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into church child abuse, which begins hearing closing submissions today, also reveal Denis McAlinden went on to commit dozens of sexual crimes against adults and children over several decades.
In 1949, the then Redemptorist provincial in Limerick, John Treacy, wrote to the Bishop of Maitland in the NSW Hunter Valley asking if “there be any possibility of taking one of our students”.
“You will very justly say then: ‘What is wrong with him, so why do you not wish to retain him? Well, his difficulty is community life . . . he is a bit hard to get on with in ordinary life. His temper is difficult,” the letter states.
While he did not specifically mention sexual crimes, the late Father Treacy recommended McAlinden “for the secular priesthood, in which he will have to live in that close association (as) we have to live with one another”.
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