The Church’s handling of sexual abuse claims has been back in the media spotlight. Following the 4 Corners program ‘Unholy Silence’ which exposed the dastardly deeds of ‘Fr F’ in the diocese of Armidale during the 1980s, the bishops of Armidale and Parramatta, seeking to be completely transparent, have appointed a respected lawyer, Tony Whitlam QC, to conduct an inquiry into the Church response to Fr F.
The inquiry will focus on a meeting of Fr F with the ‘Australian Catholic Bishops Special Issues Resource Committee’ on 3 September 1992, and its aftermath. It will be up to Mr Whitlam to chase the paper trail and presumably interview all persons involved in the 1992 meeting. Twenty years on, recollections may well be hazy and varied, but that is not surprising.
The Judicial Vicar of the Diocese of Armidale was in attendance at that 1992 meeting and provided the bishop of Armidale with a detailed report a week later which is at variance with ‘the file note of that meeting’ referred to by Cardinal Pell on 4 Corners. The Archdiocese of Sydney has described the Judicial Vicar’s report as ‘a private report’ and referred to ‘notes of the meeting held by the Church’s Professional Standards Office’ but says that ‘any official record of the meeting would be with the Armidale diocese’. Read more
Sources
- Frank Brennan in CathNews
- Image: Off Screen
Fr Frank Brennan SJ is professor of law at the Public Policy Institute, Australian Catholic University