AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Nicole Chettle
It was the practice of some clergy not to ask questions when it came to the issue of child molestation, a senior Catholic official has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse.
The Sydney hearing is examining how the dioceses at Armidale in northern New South Wales and Parramatta in Sydney’s west responded to allegations made against Father John Farrell.
Appearing at the hearing, Monsignor John Usher, who spent 20 years as director of the Catholic welfare agency Centacare, said he interviewed Farrell for an hour in 1990 and found his ongoing need to spend time with children was a grave concern.
Father John Farrell ‘should not have been a priest’
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