AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Antonette Collins
It took nearly 20 years for the Vatican to dismiss a Wollongong parish priest after allegations against him first emerged, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard.
Father John Nestor was charged and convicted of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old altar boy in Wollongong in 1996. A year later he was acquitted on appeal.
When further allegations surfaced about him engaging in inappropriate behaviour with boys at holiday camps, the local diocese tried to have him removed from the ministry.
Counsel assisting the commission Angus Stewart told the hearing the Vatican upheld an appeal by Mr Nestor in 2001.
“The congregation ruled that the Towards Healing Assessment process had not complied with the procedural requirements for an preliminary investigation under canon law,” he said.
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