AUSTRALIA
WA Today
June 25, 2014
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
Archbishop Philip Wilson was newly appointed to the Diocese of Wollongong when he received some disturbing reports about a local priest, the then Father John Gerard Nestor.
It was 1996 and Mr Nestor was already facing charges of sexually molesting a 15-year-old boy. He would later be convicted and then acquitted on appeal in 1997.
In the meantime, Archbishop Wilson was hearing complaints from other families about Father Nestor’s behaviour on the summer camps he ran in the early 1990s.
Complainants alleged Mr Nestor swam naked with boys, watched them showering and held competitions to “find the ‘hairiest arse’ and the ‘biggest dick’.”
Appearing before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Archbishop Wilson, now the Archbishop of Adelaide, shed light on the inner workings of the Catholic Church and its handling of priests accused of misconduct.
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