Complaints about a priest who was involved in a church youth movement

Father John Ignatius O'Callaghan, of Melbourne, was prominent in a Catholic youth movement, the Young Christian Workers (the YCW).

Two women and one man have contacted Broken Rites, complaining that they were sexually abused by O'Callaghan between 1958 and 1973. The three complainants do not know each other and they contacted Broken Rites separately in different years. Broken Rites referred the first of these callers to the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse unit but the police ascertained that O'Callaghan died in 1995 and therefore he can no longer be prosecuted. Broken Rites then referred these three callers to the Melbourne archdiocese's internal complaints process.

Father John O'Callaghan was born in 1929, the third child in a family of eight. In those times, it was common for a large Catholic family to channel one of its sons into a career in the priesthood.

O'Callaghan was ordained in the Melbourne archdiocese in 1955. His main parish appointments were in parishes at East Melbourne (St John's) 1956, West Brunswick 1957-60, Broadmeadows 1961-3, Camberwell South 1966-7, Seymour 1968-70, Ivanhoe 1970-2, Spotswood 1973-84 and Clayton 1985-93.

Complaints from females

One woman, "Suzie" (born in 1947), has told Broken Rites: "O'Callaghan molested me at the West Brunswick parish in 1958 when I was 11 years old. I know of five other girls who were also abused by him, including my sister."

In 1961, while at the Broadmeadows parish, O'Callaghan was appointed as the Victorian chaplain of the girls' section of the Young Christian Workers movement. This gave him easy access to girls. In 1964 this position evidently became a full-time one, with a chaplain's residence at 32 Queens Avenue, Carnegie, in Melbourne’s south-east.

A second woman, "Cathy", has told Broken Rites: "I was from Queensland and I met O'Callaghan at a big YCW conference in Queensland about 1964 when I was 16. Later I visited Melbourne on YCW business and, while I was there, O'Callaghan offered me a lift in his car. He molested me in his car.

"When I returned to Queensland, a YCW woman mentioned O'Callaghan to me and warned me that he was a molester. However, it was too late because O'Callaghan had already molested me."

O'Callaghan was officially "on leave" from the priesthood during 1965 and ceased being the girls' YCW chaplain. He returned to parish work in 1966.

O'Callaghan also worked simultaneously as an army chaplain for many years — a position that gave him many opportunities and temptations.

O'Callaghan was not the only sexual abuser in YCW circles. A third woman, "Jenny" (born in 1951), has told Broken Rites: "When I was 14 or so, I was president of the YCW at a Catholic girls' school in Melbourne. This brought me into close contact with a priest [not O'Callaghan] who was associated with the YCW Victorian headquarters. This priest sexually abused me on several occasions until I managed to end the abuse."

A male complainant

Father John Ignatius O'Callaghan was evidently a danger to boys as well as girls. A male victim, "Philip", has told Broken Rites: "When I was aged 10 at the Spotswood Catholic parish school in Melbourne in 1973, I was indecently touched several times in the school toilets by the parish priest. Father John O'Callaghan. He had easy access to the school grounds and he was always hanging around the toilets."