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Broken Rites Australia helps survivors of church-related
sex-abuse.
By Broken Rites researchers
This page was updated on 24 August 2008.
After the Pope's visit to Australia in July 2008, has he caught up on some of the latest sexual-abuse cases in Australia?
For example:
A Victorian priest to face court
Victoria Police have issued a summons, ordering a 49-year-old Catholic priest to appear in court to answer two counts of indecent acts with a child under 16 years and one count of possessing child pornography.
The order relates to incidents that allegedly occurred while the priest was stationed in a parish.
The summons was issued on 21 July 2008 (the day the Pope finished his visit to Australia), following a year-long police investigation. During the investigation, the priest went on leave from the ministry.
The matter was reported in a Victorian regional weekly newspaper on 29 July 2008 under the heading "Man on child sex charges".
When contacted by a journalist, Senior Constable Julie-Anne Newman of the Victoria Police Media Unit said the man had been bailed to appear in a magistrate's court later in 2008.
Retired priest charged
On 22 August 2008, just five weeks after the Pope's visit to Sydney, New South Wales detectives charged a priest of the Wollongong Catholic Diocese, Father Kelvin Gerald Sharkey, with two counts of buggery and 10 counts of indecent assault (that is, indecent touching), allegedly committed against an altar boy in a Wollongong parish, in the early 1970s, beginning when the boy was ten years old. Sharkey, 81, was ordered to appear in Wollongong Local Court on a later date. Police interviewed the priest in Melbourne, where he has been living since 1996. He is still classified as a "supplementary priest" of the Wollongong Diocese. See our story here.
Bishop's deputy charged with perverting the course of justice
On 15 August 2008, just four weeks after the Pope's visit to Sydney, the second most senior clergyman in the Australian Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle (Vicar-General Thomas Brennan) was charged by police with perverting the course of justice. Police said the charge related to a statement that Brennan made during a police investigation in 1998 into a complaint against a fellow priest who had been a teacher at a Catholic school where Brennan had been the headmaster. See our story here.
A priest on child-sex charges
On 14 August 2008, just weeks after the Pope's visit to Sydney, Australian Catholic priest John Sidney Denham was charged with 30 sex offences, allegedly committed against 18 boys as young as eleven. He was remanded in custody. See our story here.
A priest pleads guilty
On 8 August 2008, Father Edmund John Haines, 61, of the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, pleaded guilty in the Geelong Magistrates Court to ten child-sex and pornography charges. Another 60 charges were dropped when Haines entered his plea. He will be sentenced on six counts of an indecent act with a child under 16, as well as charges of making and possessing child pornography. He was scheduled to appear in Melbourne County Court on a later date to begin pre-sentence proceedings. See more here.
Another priest is convicted
On 25 July 2008 (four days after the Pope left Australia), a Sydney District Court jury found Sydney priest Father Paul Raymond Evans guilty of multiple sex offences against seven boys, aged in their early teens, in the 1970s and 1980s. Evans was convicted on nine counts of homosexual intercourse by a teacher, seven counts of indecent assault and two acts of indecency. Until 1988, Paul Evans was a dormitory master at Boys' Town Catholic boarding school (operated by a Catholic religious order, the Salesians of Don Bosco) in Engadine, south of Sydney. Previously, he had worked with the Salesians in Melbourne and Adelaide. After 1988, he worked in parishes in the Broken Bay diocese in Sydney's north. He was still ministering in the Broken Bay diocese when he was finally charged with the offences which led to his conviction in 2008. After the jury verdict, Paul Evans was remanded in custody. The court will begin the sentencing proceedings in September 2008. See our story here.
Another court case begins
On 21 July 2008, the day the Pope left Australia, another Australian court heard allegations that a priest (Father Brian Spillane) had sexually abused pupils at a prominent Catholic boys' boarding school. In the 1980s Father Brian Spillane was a priest in the Vincentian Fathers (this religious order is also known as the Congregation of the Mission). On 21 July 2008, Brian Joseph Spillane appeared before Bathurst Local Court, facing multiple charges of sexual offences against fve pupils, aged 11, 12 and 13, in the 1980s, at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst, NSW — a boys' school conducted by the Vincentian Fathers. Spillane's lawyer told the court that Spillane is 50 years old, has left the Vincentian order and is now married. The court allowed Spillane to have bail pending further court proceedings. See more here.
Christian Brother on new charges
On 3 July 2008 — ten days before the Pope's arrival in Australia — prosecutors filed new child-sex charges in the Ballarat Magistrates Court against Christian Brother Robert Charles Best, aged 67. The court has listed the charges for a first-mention day, when the prosecution and defence can make submissions regarding a subsequent committal hearing. The charges include multiple counts of sexual offences against boys, allegedly committed at St Alipius boys' primary school in Ballarat East between 1970 and 1973 and at St Leo's College in Box Hill (Melbourne) in 1976. The prosecution file was compiled by the Ballarat Criminal Investigation Unit of the Victoria Police. Best was convicted in 1996 for sexual child-abuse, committed in the 1970s at Ballarat East. See some background about Best here.
And furthermore
- 108 Catholic priests and brothers have been sentenced in Australian court cases in which Broken Rites had an involvement or an interest. These 108 court cases are on the top half of our Black Collar Crime page. In addition, on the bottom half of the page, there are a number of out-of-court cases in which Broken Rites had an involvement or an interest. See our Black Collar Crime page here.
- In Canberra on 23 June 2008, Marist Brother John William Chute (alias "Brother Kostka") was jailed for sexual child-abuse at a Canberra Catholic boys' school, Marist College. Kostka is in jail and therefore was not be able to welcome the Pope to Australia. See our story here.
- On 25 June 2008, an Australian former employee of the Vatican (Brother Rodger Moloney) was convicted for sexually abusing intellectually-handicapped youths. And, while Australian taxpayers are paying mega-dollars to stage the Catholic Church's World Youth Day, the church has spent mega-dollars during the past five years trying to protect Brother Moloney. See our story here.
- Australian police are currently arranging to extradite a Catholic priest, Charles Alfred Barnett, 66, from Indonesia to South Australia, where he will face child abuse charges. Australian police allege that Father Barnett molested a number of boys, aged between 12 and 17, from 1977 to 1994, around Adelaide and Port Pirie, an Indonesian court was told. It is believed that Father Barnett was ordained into an Australia-wide religious order and that he may have also ministered in other Australian states (perhaps Queensland and New South Wales), as well as South Australia. See our story here.
- The Sydney "Sun Herald", on Sunday 22 June 2008, reported that Father Ronald John McKeirnan (who was jailed in 1998 for sexual child-abuse) is still being harbored in the Brisbane archdiocese. The paper said that McKeirnan has been employed doing work on church websites, including websites that are relevant to youth. The Brisbane Catholic Leader, on 29 June 2008, confirmed that the Marist Brothers in Brisbane are still happy to have Father McKeirnan saying Mass for them, despite his conviction for child sex-abuse. See our story about the jailing of McKeirnan here.
The story of Father Kevin O'Donnell
During the Pope's visit to Australia in July 2008, the news media recalled the case of Catholic priest Father Kevin O'Donnell who was jailed in Melbourne in 1995 after he admitted sexually abusing children. The Melbourne archdiocese now admits that O'Donnell sexually abused children in every parish in which he worked during his 50-year career.
Broken Rites has obtained a video tape of a confirmation ceremony at Kevin O'Donnell's Sacred Heart parish in Oakleigh in 1989. On this tape, Auxiliary Bishop George Pell (then responsible for Melbourne’s southern suburbs, including O'Donnell's parish) praised the work of Father Kevin O'Donnell.
Near the end of the ceremony, Pell thanked all who helped to organise the ceremony. He then told the parishioners: "And I would like to congratulate Father Kevin [O'Donnell] and Father Michael for all the work they are doing here. It is obviously a great and strong parish with a proud Catholic tradition, and I know you will work to maintain this just as your priests do, and I look forward to many, many more years of work from Father O’Donnell in the church here."
Father O'Donnell was still targeting children into the early 1990s. In 1993-95, some of his victims contacted the Victoria Police sexual offences and child-abuse unit. O'Donnell pleaded guilty to all the charges and was jailed. Father O'Donnell's "work" was finished.
A year after the jailing of O'Donnell, George Pell was promoted to the rank of Archbishop of Melbourne, and, later still, he moved to Sydney and became a cardinal.
The most comprehensive article available about Father O'Donnell is on the Broken Rites website
here.
Bishop Fisher should apologise to victims
At a press conference on 16 July 2008 during Catholic World Youth Day celebrations, reporters asked the event's co-ordinator (Bishop Anthony Fisher) about the suffering of church sex-abuse victims
Fisher was dismissive, saying that church victims are "dwelling crankily on old wounds".
The bishop then went off to prepare for a re-enactment (in Sydney streets) of the crucifixion of Jesus, which occurred 2,000 years ago. That is, Bishop Fisher himself is "dwelling crankily on old wounds".
Cardinal Pell under scrutiny over the church's pastoral ethics
As the Pope visited Australia for the Catholic Church's taxpayer-funded "World Youth Day", the public learned how the country's most senior churchman (Cardinal George Pell) dealt with a Catholic priest (Father Terence Goodall) who allegedly sexualised his pastoral relationships.
Medical practitioners and psychiatrists are not allowed to sexualise their relationship with their patients. And, publicly at least, the Australian Catholic bishops claim that their priests are not supposed to sexualise their pastoral relationships.
The church's "Towards Healing" protocol says: "Clergy and religious are in a special position of trust and authority in relation to those who are in their pastoral care, e.g., those in their parish, people seeking advice, students at a Catholic school. Any attempt to sexualise a pastoral relationship is a breach of trust, an abuse of authority and professional misconduct."
Church documents, recently broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Lateline" TV program, alleged that Sydney priest Father Terence Goodall sexualised two of his pastoral relationships:
- He allegedly sexualised his pastoral relationship with a 10-year-old altar boy (let us call him "Basil") in 1973; and
- He allegedly sexualised his pastoral relationship with a Catholic teacher of religious studies (Anthony), who had been seeking Goodall's advice and guidance. These incidents, in January 1982, occurred after Anthony attended Mass at Goodall's parish. Anthony says he immediately reported the incidents to the church authorities (that is, in 1982) but his complaint was ignored.
Both cases allegedly involved indecent touching of the victim's genitals.
After the church established its Professional Standards office (promising to act against church sexual abuse), both Basil (the former altar boy) and Anthony complained to the PSO about Goodall's conduct. The PSO appointed a private investigator, Howard Murray, who reported to Sydney's archbishop George Pell in 2003 that both these complaints of priestly pastoral misbehaviour were sustained. Pell adopted the finding regarding the former altar boy but he told Anthony (incorrectly) that the investigator had not sustained Anthony's complaint. Pell also told Anthony (incorrectly) that there had been no other complaints about Father Goodall and he also asserted (incorrectly) that Anthony had given "consent" to Goodall. Rebuffed by this exoneration of Goodall's pastoral abuse, Anthony therefore reported the incidents to the police, who then charged Goodall with indecent touching of Anthony. The police obtained an admission from Goodall that Anthony had not consented. Goodall pleaded guilty in court and was convicted in 2005.
Thus it was the police and the courts (not Cardinal Pell) who provided moral leadership in the Goodall case.
You can see a report of the Goodall criminal court case
here.
After Goodall's criminal conviction, Anthony sought to obtain justice by claiming compensation from the Sydney Archdiocese. But the archdiocese showed no compassion and its lawyers fought Anthony ferociously. Finally, by late June 2008, the church forced Anthony to abandon his legal action, leaving him empty-handed.
A journalist from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation obtained certain documents that had been tabled during this court action, and these documents were promptly featured on the "Lateline" TV program in early July 2008. These documents revealed to the public, for the first time, the story of Anthony's struggle to obtain justice from a powerful corporation, the Sydney Archdiocese.
The Catholic Church authorities were embarrassed that these court documents became available just before the church's World Youth Day was about to start in Sydney but this co-incidence occurred because the the church had just defeated Anthony's compensation claim, and it was the ending of this court action that made the documents freely available.
The church's defeat of Anthony ended up being a public relations disaster for the church authorities. The result is summed up in an article (entitled Pell stands discredited), by religious affairs writer Dr Muriel Porter, in the Melbourne Age on 11 July 2008. You can read the article here.
A pre-Pope conference
On 20-21 June 2008, representatives of Broken Rites attended a conference in Sydney about religious-based sexual abuse. Organised by the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, the conference was attended by other professionals and academics from various disciplines (such as social sciences and law), as well as by victims' advocates plus some individual victims/survivors.
Religious leaders from all denominations were invited to join a panel to discuss progress. Only the Anglicans accepted.
Broken Rites was very impressed by several of the speakers, especially:
- Dr Gary Schoener, psychologist, director, of the "Walk-In Counseling Center", Minnesota, USA; and
- Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs, who lectures in Child Development at the University of South Australia.
Rachael Kohn, of ABC Radio National, interviewed these speakers for her program, "The Spirit of Things", which was broadcast on Sunday evening 29 June 2008. You can listen to those interviews on the ABC website.
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