By a Broken Rites researcher

In late 2007, the Catholic Church in Australia was forced to admit publicly that a priest, Father Denis McAlinden, had been a serial child-molester during his 50-year career in the ministry. The church admitted, reluctantly, that it had known about McAlinden's crimes for decades. However, the church shuffled him backwards and forwards between New South Wales and Western Australia, thus enabling him to offend in both states.

McAlinden died in 2005. In late 2007, a Broken Rites researcher discovered that the church also warehoused McAlinden in Papua New Guinea for several years, in the middle of his career, after he abused children in Australia. In June 2008, further research by Broken Rites revealed that the church also sent him for a year to do parish work in New Zealand.

Throughout his career, McAlinden officially belonged to the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, north of Sydney, in New South Wales. When this diocese transferred McAlinden from state to state, and from country to country, it neglected to warn his new parishioners that he was a danger to children. The Maitland-Newcastle diocese therefore deliberately inflicted him on new victims, thousands of kilometres away. This therefore leaves the Maitland-Newcastle with a legal liability, and a PNG diocese and a New Zealand diocese also share this culpability.

In late 2007, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese publicly apologised for its long silence about McAlinden and for having left the individual victims to cope on their own without any help from the church.

In 2008, a number of McAlinden's Australian vicitms consulted a Newcastle legal firm with a view to taking civil action against the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, claiming compensation for the damage done to their lives. Any New Zealand victims of McAlinden can take simlar action.

Broken Rites research

Fr Denis McAlinden was an Irish priest who arrived in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese from Ireland, in 1949, the year he was ordained. He was one of a significant number of Irish priests who surfaced, often unaccountably, in Australia around that time.

A relative of McAlinden in Australia has told Broken Rites that McAlinden came from Lurgan, County Armagh, in Ireland's north. He was trained and ordained in Ireland, but the name of the seminary is not known. It is not known whether he was trained as a diocesan priest or as a member of a religious order. It is not known how he came to be in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese. The Maitland-Newcastle bishop at that time (until 1956) was Edmund Gleeson, a member of the Redemptorist order.

Soon after McAlinden's arrival in Maitland-Newcastle, talk started about him touching children.

Broken Rites has checked McAlinden's parish appointments in the annual Australian Catholic directories. In the 1960s, his parishes in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese included Singleton, Mussellbrook, Murrurindi and Greta.

The directories indicate that in 1969 he was transferred out of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese to a diocese (called Mendi) in Papua New Guinea, where he spent about four years. It is not known what kind of problem in McAlinden's ministry caused such an unusual transfer but it is easy to guess.

By 1974, he had been brought back to Maitland-Newcastle diocese to become the Parish Priest (that is, in charge) at the Kendall parish (a coastal town, north of Newcastle). But, extraordinarily, within a couple of years, he was removed from this position.

The Maitland-Newcastle diocese allowed McAlinden to stay in the ministry but only in a relieving, temporary capacity. In the 1981 directory the diocese relegated him to its category of "supplementary" priests, listing him as doing "relief duties" at its Nelson Bay parish (north of Newcastle).

Western Australia

This transfer involved a deal between the bishop's office in Maitland-Newcastle and the bishop's offfice in Geraldton. The Catholics of Maitland-Newcastle were not told why McAlinden was leaving that diocese, and the Catholics of the Geraldton diocese were not told why this priest was arriving.

Broken Rites first heard about McAlinden's West Australian offences in 1994 when we received a phone call from a young woman "Susan", who said that, in 1982 when she was aged 10, she was sexually abused by Fr Denis McAlinden at "Our Lady of the Pilbara" parish at Wickham, Western Australia. Thus, the Maitland-Newcastle diocese had made McAlinden into another diocese's problem — and the Geraldton had knowingly inflicted a problem priest on a 10-year-old child.

New Zealand

In June 2008, Broken Rites research revealed that in 1984 McAlinden was in New Zealand, where he was "on loan" to the Diocese of Hamilton, situated in the North Island, where he did "supply" (relieving work) in rural parishes. This kind of transfer involved an arrangement between the Maitland-Newcastle diocese and the Hamilton diocese. Any victim of McAlinden in New Zealand could take civil legal action against the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle (for turning McAlinden loose in New Zealand), as well as against the Hamilton Diocese (for accepting a problem priest from Australia).

McAlinden was back in Maitland-Newcastle in the mid-1980s but the Australian Catholic Directory in the late 1980s gave McAlinden's address merely as care of the bishop's office in Maitland.

Western Australia again

From 1994 to 1998, he remained listed in the annual directories as being "on leave" from the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, and his forwarding address was care of the diocesan office. He was not listed in 1999 or thereafter.

During McAlinden's career, he was protected by each of the three bishops who administered the Maitland-Newcastle diocese during that time: Edmund Gleeson (to 1956), John Toohey (1956-75) and Leo Clarke (1976-95).

Broken Rites and the media

The Newcastle Herald (a daily paper) immediately publicised our Vincent Ryan story, which in turn prompted Herald readers to contact the newspaper about another protected offender, Fr Denis McAlinden.

Beginning on 29 September 2007, the Herald published a series of articles about McAlinden, written by staff journalist Joanne McCarthy with help from Broken Rites. Within a few weeks after the first McAlinden article, the Herald became aware of at least 20 victims of this priest. A number of other victims contacted the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

New information in 2007

The Newcastle Herald articles revealed much about McAlinden and how the Catholic Church handled him over five decades:-

• Talk about McAlinden started shortly after he arrived in Maitland-Newcastle in 1949. A Newcastle woman, who works in the Catholic system, told the Newcastle Herald in 2007 that she remembers her father warning her to "keep well clear of the young curate" only months into his first position in the diocese. In 1996, after Father Vincent Ryan was charged, the woman raised the name of McAlinden at her Catholic workplace and was told he had left New South Wales.
  
  
• A prominent Newcastle region businesswoman, "Cathy", says she was the last child in McAlinden's car on the drive home from school in the 1960s. She "screamed and screamed" when he molested her on a dead-end road at Branxton (west of Maitland). Cathy says Father McAlinden also molested her younger sister. Cathy knows two other girls who were molested by McAlinden. Cathy says she phoned Bishop Michael Malone's office in late 1996, and left three messages that she wanted to speak with the bishop about a private matter but she never received a call back. (Malone had taken over this diocese from Bishop Leo Clarke, who retired.)
  
  
• Another woman, "Mary", says McAlinden locked her in the presbytery at Hamilton (a Newcastle suburb) with him and molested her in 1966, when she was aged 11.
  
  
• In the mid-1980s, Mike Stanwell (then aged 30) was principal of a small Catholic school, west of Newcastle, when he became concerned about reports from young children who had been in the adjoining church with Father McAlinden. Mr Stanwell says there were consistent stories of what the priest did when he sat children on his lap. Mr Stanwell went to see Bishop Leo Clarke, who said he would send McAlinden away for treatment. McAlinden was moved to a parish closer to Newcastle. After receiving further reports about the priest and a child, Mr Stanwell again went to see Bishop Leo Clarke. Within a few weeks Father McAlinden had left the diocese; but, as the Broken Rites research has indicated, he ended up in the Bunbury diocese in Western Australia. This kind of transfer or loan required a reference from McAlinden's "home" bishop — Bishop Leo Clarke in Maitland-Newcastle.
  
  
• "Jenny", aged 28 in 2007, told the Newcastle Herald that she was seven or eight when Father Denis McAlinden gave lollies to children in the school playground. She followed McAlinden to the church several times. Jenny's mother says she was devastated when Jenny recounted what the priest liked to do when he sat little girls on his lap. Jenny also told her mother about two friends who said the priest liked to bathe them; those children stayed overnight with him, Jenny's mother said. Jenny has never spoken to police or the church about McAlinden. She remembers that her school principal, Mike Stanwell, told all pupils not to go down to the church because it was out of bounds. Jenny does not go to church any more.
  
  
• During a weekend in 1987, McAlinden was suddenly removed from a Maitland-Newcastle parish. Later, Bishop Leo Clarke stopped McAlinden from working as a priest in the diocese completely.
  
  
• But the diocese did not report McAlinden to the police; nor did it advise or help any family to do so.
  
  
• The "grounding" of McAlinden referred only to Maitland-Newcastle, not to the rest of the world. The church allowed McAlinden to go to Western Australia, where he ministered in the small inland farming town of Kojonup, in the Bunbury diocese, south of Perth, in the early 1990s.
  
  
• In 1992, he was charged in a West Australian court with incidents of three indecent assault charges involving a 10-year-old girl, although these charges did not result in a conviction.
  
  
• New South Wales police have confirmed that in 1999 they received a report that McAlinden had sexual intercourse with an eleven-year-old girl in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Sources say that Father McAlinden was known to transport children from home to school in his car during this period. The police investigated this complaint in 1999 and spoke to senior representatives of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, who confirmed that McAlinden still officially belonged to this diocese in 1999. In December 1999, the NSW police issued a warrant for the arrest of Father McAlinden, then aged 76, but evidently at this time he was overseas, probably visiting Ireland.
  
  
• In 2001, New South Wales police received another report about McAlinden — that he had molested a young girl in the Newcastle region in the 1970s.
  
  
• In mid-2002 the Maitland-Newcastle diocese secretly finalised a compensation case relating to McAlinden.
  
  
• In October 2005, a senior Maitland-Newcastle diocese representative phoned Newcastle police to advise that Father McAlinden was dying of cancer in a Catholic Church-run aged-care centre at Subiaco in Western Australia. West Australian police visited the priest and confirmed he was too ill to be extradited to NSW. He died one month later and is buried in Perth.
  
  
• Father McAlinden talked in Maitland-Newcastle about working in Aboriginal communities in Western Australia. This is an alarming issue which would need to be investigated in Western Australia.

The church is evasive at first

When preparing its first article about McAlinden in September 2007, the Newcastle Herald contacted the office of Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone but he declined to answer questions about the movements of Father McAlinden.

The Herald also contacted the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide. Wilson was originally a priest in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese and became the diocese's vicar-general (chief administrator). Wilson confirmed to the Herald in late September 2007 that he had been involved with the Father McAlinden matter in the 1980s but declined to give details. A week later, in early October 2007 (after the Herald had begun its McAlinden articles), Archbishop Wilson confirmed in a statement to the Herald that he was aware in 1985 of concerns about Father McAlinden. In 1985, Father Wilson travelled to a Maitland-Newcastle parish at the request Bishop Leo Clarke to "talk to the school authorities after they raised concerns about Father McAlinden".

The Herald sought to interview Archbishop Wilson in person about how the church handled the Father McAlinden case but a spokeswoman for Wilson said he was "too busy" to be interviewed. "That's all we really want to say at this stage," the spokeswoman said. She referred any questions to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

The church apologises

Publication of the Herald's first McAlinden article on Saturday 29 September 2007 caused a public-relations disaster for the church hierarchy. Six days later, on Friday 5 October 2007, the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese issued a statement, acknowledging the victims of McAlinden and apologising for his actions and "any instances of abuse by church personnel of people in its care".

The statement, which acknowledged "all victims of abuse by church personnel", also said that the diocese "has been co-operating fully with the authorities regarding Father McAlinden for some time".

The diocese confirmed the priest had many victims, but it said that most were not known to the church.

[This indicates that the diocese never bothered to find McAlinden's victims or to offer them help.]

Civil action against the diocese

One McAlinden victim told the Newcastle Herald in April 2008 that she was seeking compensation because the church let her down.

"I don't care if I only get one dollar but I feel like they just want us older victims to be silent and go away so they can forget about us and I don't want that to happen," she said.

The woman said she knew of another McAlinden victim who was taking legal action.

"She has a sister who was a victim of McAlinden's as well," she said.

"He liked siblings up to about the age of 12 until they got too old for him."

Broken Rites is proud of our role in helping the Newcastle Herald to end the 50-year cover-up of the McAlinden affair.

Below, we are reprinting one of the Herald's later articles about the hierarchy's role in the McAlinden affair.

Priest who molested relatives

By JOANNE McCARTHY
Newcastle Herald
20 October 2007, page 1

Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone will personally apologise to two relatives of pedophile priest Denis McAlinden after their disclosures in 1995 about his years of abuse were met with silence from the Catholic Church.

"They did absolutely nothing," said one of the women, 54, whose formal statement to then diocese vicar-general Philip Wilson included details of Father McAlinden molesting her while she said confession to him between the ages of eight and 12.

Archbishop Wilson is now the country's most senior bishop and president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

The statement, on October 13, 1995, was made in the same week that Father Vince Ryan was charged with sexually assaulting boys in the diocese, and Bishop Malone took over from Bishop Leo Clarke.

It came as police began investigating whether Monsignor Patrick Cotter concealed Ryan's offences for two decades.

"We went to the church because we wanted something done to stop him [Father McAlinden] from molesting more children and we never heard another word from them," said the priest's relative, who was sexually abused by him for four years.

"Maybe they were too busy with the other pedophile matter but I want to know what they did to protect children between when my sister and I reported what he'd done to us and when he left the country after police tried to arrest him.

"He was a predator and an animal. I hate to think how many victims there are out there."

The woman, who was 42 when she made the formal complaint in 1995, said she and her sister did not go to police, because they were related to the priest and feared the effect on elderly family members of a police investigation and resulting publicity.

"For that reason we feel very betrayed by the church, because it was up to them to stop him," she said.

Since the diocese acknowledged the late Father McAlinden as a serial child sex offender after a series of reports in this newspaper last month, The Herald has become aware of at least 20 victims.

Most refuse to have anything to do with the church. The priest left Australia in 1999 while a warrant was issued for his arrest and returned at an unknown date.

He died in Western Australia in November 2005.

The diocese is providing counselling to some victims and support for at least one church member who believes she may have unknowingly helped the priest gain access to children.

The priest's relative spoke with The Herald about the way he "groomed" children with chocolates and lollies, found opportunities to be alone with them for extended periods and molested them in his car or while getting them to sit on his knees in empty churches.

Her story of abuse is consistent with abuse allegations made by other women who have contacted The Herald.

The woman, a health-care worker who still lives in the Hunter Valley, said Bishop Michael Malone's statement of acknowledgement that appeared in The Herald on October 6 "did nothing for me".

"It was a statement made on the bishop's behalf while he's on holidays," she said.

"It wasn't enough for me, it wasn't enough for my sister and I wouldn't have thought it was enough for any of [McAlinden's] victims.

"I'd like the bishop to stand in front of me and apologise for what that predator did to me and all his other victims, because I feel there's been a cover-up and it's about time they acknowledged that."

The woman said she would accept an apology from Bishop Malone but did not want to have contact with Archbishop Wilson.

"I wouldn't want to see him again," she said.

"I feel anger towards him, because he's gone up in the church, right up to the top, and all of McAlinden's victims are still sitting, right down here."

Archbishop Wilson is overseas and cannot be contacted for a comment but in a statement to The Herald this month said: "I have personally always acted according to the due processes in place and with the deepest concern for anybody who may have been abused."

A spokeswoman for Bishop Malone said the bishop had offered his personal and profound apologies to many victims of pedophile priests when apologies had been requested.

The diocese had stripped Father McAlinden of his right to act as a priest in the Hunter [the Maitland-Newcastle region] in 1993.

After his relatives' complaints in 1995, the diocese and the Vatican had taken steps to remove him from the priesthood altogether.

The process was not finished because the priest left the country and refused to co-operate.

[End of extract from the Newcastle Herald, 20 October 2007.]

Another Irish priest

See another Broken Rites article about an Irish priest in Australia, Fr Denis Daly, here.