MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
The New Daily
December 5, 2017
By Lucie Morris-Marr
Among the worst of it was a letter. It was dated August 20, 1984.
The Archbishop of Melbourne at the time, Frank Little, whose role would later be succeeded by the ambitious George Pell, wrote telling parishioners that he would not be investigating allegations of abuse by a priest as requested. He felt it was “improper”.
It was down to them to approach the priest, Father Peter Searson.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has issued a damning final report into “case study 35” on the Archdiocese of Melbourne exposing the culture of secrecy and failures.
In particular they singled out Archbishop Little, who died in 2008, for “abjectly failing to protect the safety of children” and leaving them at risk of “catastrophic human consequences”.
“Complaints were dealt with in a way that sought to protect the Archdiocese from scandal and liability and prioritised the interests of the Church over those of the victims,” the royal commission report said
The report said Archbishop Little, who headed the Archdiocese from 1974 to 1996, dismissed or ignored serious allegations of child sexual abuse against a number of priests including Searson who terrorised children.
And despite the long list of allegations against Searson, Archbishop Little then appointed him in 1984 as the parish priest at Doveton where complaints continued to be made.
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