AUSTRALIA
9 News
A paedophile NSW priest stripped of his authority allegedly pretended to be a cleric and became a school chaplain in the Philippines.
The claim has been revealed at an inquiry examining how church leaders and police handled reports of child sexual abuse by fathers Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher in the Hunter region of NSW.
Barrister assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan, said Fr McAlinden wrote to Maitland-Newcastle bishop Leo Clarke in 1995 claiming to have heard “no less than 10,000 confessions” in six months working in the Philippines’ San Pablo diocese.
In the letter, Fr McAlinden said he had made admissions of “past failings” to senior NSW Catholic priest Brian Lucas but, through prayer, was no longer that way inclined.
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