AUSTRALIA
Ararat Advertiser
Rex Martinich
@RexMartinich
21 Apr 2017
FORMER Horsham Catholic parish priest Father Frank Madden has died age 90.
Catholic Diocese of Ballarat Vicar General Justin Driscoll said Fr Madden passed away on Thursday night in Koroit, where he had been living in retirement.
“Fr Madden turned 90 in November last year,” Fr Driscoll said. …
Fr Madden was the priest in charge of Horsham parish when notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was sent to the Wimmera between July 1986 and June 1988.
Ridsdale has been convicted of dozens of historical child sexual abuse charges against 53 victims in Ballarat and the wider diocese, which covers western Victoria.
Fr Madden appeared at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2015.
Fr Madden accepted that he must take some responsibility for reshuffling of Ridsdale between locations and the devastation caused to people.
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