AUSTRALIA
news.com.au
JULY 13, 2017
Megan Neil
Australian Associated Press
Australia’s first Catholic cardinal suspended a priest who exposed himself to children but the man later returned to parish work and allegedly abused a boy, documents before a royal commission reveal.
The Catholic Church’s insurance company refused to cover a claim that Father Robert Alban McNeill abused a boy in the 1980s because of Sydney archdiocese’s prior knowledge in 1969/1970 of “the offender’s propensities”.
A 2004 Catholic Church Insurances Ltd letter to the Diocese of Broken Bay said Fr McNeill’s 1970 conviction for sexual offences involving children was brought to then Sydney archbishop Sir Norman Thomas Gilroy’s attention at the time.
The 1940-1971 Sydney archbishop became the first Australian-born member of the Sacred College of Cardinals in 1946 and was the 1970 Australian of the Year.
Tendered documents released by the child abuse royal commission show Fr McNeill was fined for exposing himself to children in 1969 and 1970 when he said he was suffering from depression and a nervous breakdown.
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