AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM
MARK COLVIN: A Ballarat parish priest has told the child abuse Royal Commission that the former bishop of the Diocese must bear some of the responsibility for the clerical abuse in the region.
Father Adrian McInerney gave evidence that Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew that Father Gerald Ridsdale was abusing children but just moved him from parish to parish.
Father McInerney’s evidence has raised more questions about how much Cardinal George Pell knew about the sexual abuse of children in Ballarat in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Samantha Donovan reports.
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The royal commission has heard evidence that the former Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, knew that Father Gerald Ridsdale was sexually abusing children, and moved him from parish to parish any time complaints were made.
Today Bishop Mulkearns’ former secretary, Father Adrian McInerney, told the commission the now retired Bishop should take some responsibility for the child abuse in the diocese.
RONALD MULKEARNS: In retrospect, they’d say you needed to remove people completely from ministry.
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