SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald
September 6, 2017
By Madonna King
You tell me whether this wanna-be Catholic priest should be sacked or not.
Five years ago, in 2012, as complaints against the church flooded in and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was announced, he took a fondness to an altar girl.
To her family, it amounted to so much more than that. He had also squeezed her around the hips, and followed, or stalked, her – an accusation amounting to sexual abuse. That’s supported by the wording in the Towards Healing document which defines sexual abuse as any kind of “harassment, molestation, and any other conduct of a sexual nature which is inconsistent with the integrity of a pastoral relationship’’.
No charges were laid, but the impact on his 14-year-old victim was undeniable. She felt scared, and then sick, anxious and then she couldn’t sleep. Her school marks began to plummet. And ongoing psychological sessions were testament to the damage grown-ups can do to our kids.
That was his first strike. Should he have been dismissed from the seminary there? If he was a teacher, wouldn’t he have been in all sorts of strife?
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