AUSTRALIA
The Courier
By Fiona Henderson May 26, 2015
BALLARAT priest Father Adrian McInerney said he would break the confessional seal to report a crime.
Father McInerney told the royal commission he had changed his mind over the past few years because of the magnitude of Ballarat’s clergy sex abuse tragedy.
When asked if he had ever heard confessions of sexual aggression, he said he had heard about adultery but never confessions of abuse.
Senior counsel assisting the royal commission Gail Furness asked Father McInerney if he did hear such a confession, would he feel obliged to keep it to himself?
“If it’s a crime, it’s a crime and has to be reported,” Father McInerney said.
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