Even though the Catholic Church had “extensive knowledge dating back to the 1950s” of the “serious risk posed to children” by the paedophile priest Denis McAlinden, he continued sexually abusing children for decades before he was removed from the priesthood in 1993, an inquiry has heard.
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The Bishop of the church's Maitland-Newcastle diocese, Bill Wright, made a dramatic, unreserved apology from the witness box to victims and their families at the inquiry into an alleged police and church cover-up of child sex abuse allegations against two priests in the Hunter region on Monday morning.
Bishop Wright's apology is believed to be the most comprehensive acknowledgement of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church yet made by a serving church leader.
He acknowledged that McAlinden and another priest, James Fletcher, both now dead, were “sexual predators” who “repeatedly committed acts of sexual abuse against children”, using their positions of trust in the church to gain access to the children and to conceal their acts. The inquiry heard that one victim complained in 2001 that she had been abused by McAlinden in 1977 when she was four years old.
Bishop Wright said the abuse perpetrated by the priests was “exacerbated on occasion by the failures of church leaders” and had caused “real and enduring harm” to the victims, their families and many others.
“My apology is intended to express the deep sorrow of the Catholic community that such things ever happened to people in our church; our desire that the victims now have the chance to tell their stories with confidence of acceptance and are able to obtain justice to the extent that this is possible; our commitment to assisting those that were abused as best we can; and our commitment to doing all in our power to protect children from such abuse now and into the future”, Bishop Wright said.
He acknowledged that the children were hurt further when they were not believed because the offender was a priest, and that church officials had failed to act or act effectively to support the victims and their families and ensure the offences were not repeated.
The inquiry heard yesterday that several church documents dating from 1993 contained reference to admissions by Father McAlinden.
One victim specifically asked that her statement of complaint against McAlinden be made available as corroboration for other victims, but this request was not passed on to police until many years later.
By the time police learnt of it, in 2005, McAlinden was in Western Australia dying of the last stages of cancer. He was never charged with offences relating to his time in the Hunter region.
The victim who wanted her statement used as corroboration was told by the diocese in 2002 McAlinden had a known history of child abuse and “a file you could jump over”.
smh.com.au
