AUSTRALIA
The Courier
Melissa Cunningham
May 4, 2016
Ballarat’s Catholic diocese is holding a memorial mass for Bishop Ronald Mulkearns who presided over a notorious period of child sexual abuse by clergy which spanned decades.
The Ballarat diocese advertised the mass on its website this week. It described the service as “an opportunity for priests and people from around the diocese to come together to offer mass for Bishop Mulkearns”.
It follows a low-key response from the Catholic Church since Bishop Mulkearns died on April 3 after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 85 years-old.
Ballarat Vicar-General Father Justin Driscoll said he understood members of the community affected by the church’s dark past may be hurt by tribute.
But he quashed speculation the service would “celebrate or honour” Bishop Mulkearns’ life. Father Driscoll told The Courier it would be a “simple and ordinary weekday mass” to allow parishioners to pray for the bishop, as they would for anyone else who died in the community.
“I understand the concerns of people affected,” he said. “But this will not replicate a funeral. It will just be an ordinary mass in which a person who has died is prayed for and mentioned in the prayers of the faithful. It’s more about the practice of praying for people who have died. It’s part of what we do as people of faith, we pray for the living and we pray for the dead.”
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