AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JOANNE McCARTHY June 9, 2014
MORPETH man Bob O’Toole would like Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Bill Wright to walk in the shoes of Hunter Catholics for a day or two.
They were confused, devastated and horrified by the findings of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry, Mr O’Toole said.
Adverse findings against two former bishops, the general secretary of the Australian Bishops Conference, and a number of Hunter priests, along with shocking news that a senior Australian Catholic official could be charged with a conceal-type offence relating to the late child sex offender priest Jim Fletcher, had stunned many into silence, he said.
But there’s growing anger about the Catholic Church’s, and Bishop Wright’s, muted response to those findings, and the failure to stand down Father Bill Burston and Monsignor Allan Hart as Newcastle parish priests.
Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, SC, found Monsignor Hart had known since 1993 that paedophile priest Denis McAlinden had sexually abused a young girl. McAlinden died in 2005 with his ‘‘good name protected’’ by the Catholic Church.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.