AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney
OUTSIDE the office of the Catholic bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, in NSW’s Hunter Valley, hangs a sepia portrait of his predecessor, Leo Clarke, the bishop who protected a pedophile priest.
The late, bespectacled bishop’s repeated failure to report his knowledge of child abuse to police over several decades from 1976 was “inexcusable”, according to the final report of an 18-month state inquiry, handed down last week. Yet the portrait will remain.
“I would strongly oppose removing Bishop Clarke’s portrait, because you are almost then trying to censor history. He is part of this story,” says Sean Tynan, manager of the diocese’s child protection service.
This small but significant decision is just one part of the reckoning forced on the diocese by the findings of the NSW special commission of inquiry. Nor is the church alone; the local police force and others associated with the “whistleblower” detective who provoked the inquiry are only now beginning to count the cost.
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