Dunedin’s bishop admits Church failed to protect children

Thursday, August 23rd, 2018

The Bishop of Dunedin, Michael Dooley, has apologised to the city and asked for forgiveness after admitting the Catholic Church failed to protect children from priests and brothers who were paedophiles.

The church also had to accept its share of the blame for the way it handled offenders, by moving them to new parishes and exposing more children to harm Dooley said.

“We didn’t do as good a job as we should. I have no problem at all in apologising for the people who have suffered for the way we have handled it.

Dooley said the offending and systemic failure highlighted in Pennsylvania was on a different scale to that in Dunedin, but “there will be more” victims hidden within the Dunedin diocese.

In Pennsylvania, the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg had responded by naming alleged offenders and announcing it would strip the names of bishops who failed to act from church properties.

Dooley said a similar course of action could follow in Dunedin, including renaming Kavanagh College but only if an independent inquiry – such as the Royal Commission – found evidence to support such a move.

“If it came out that there was credible evidence, then that would be a case for doing something,” he said.

He has also added his voice to growing calls for churches to be included in the Government’s Royal Commission into historic abuse.

An independent inquiry was needed to interrogate churches’ responses to sexual abuse and lift the “shadow” from them, he believed.

That had been the view of all New Zealand’s bishops since March, but “I would say it is firming up”, he said.

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