The 82-year-old walked free on parole last month; he had served less than half of a three-year sentence relating to two altar boys.

Ryan had previously spent 14 years in prison for abusing more than 30 boys.

The Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Bill Wright, had been pressed to reveal what steps he had taken to ask Pope Francis to remove Ryan from the priesthood. Read more

Church leaders thought they had struck a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with police about what information would be handed over.

The unsigned draft memorandum said: "Church authorities shall make available the report of an assessment and any other matter relevant to the accused's account of events only if required to do so by court order."

But police deny there was any arrangement, saying such a deal would be been in breach of the Crimes Act.

Documents released under Freedom of Information laws show that the executive director of the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations, Michael McDonald, wrote to the NSW child protection squad in 2003 seeking confirmation that the memorandum of understanding was still in place.

In response, Kim McKay from the child protection squad advised no agreement ever existed.

"The arrangements proposed by the draft MOU appear to be in direct conflict with the explicit legislative requirement of section 316 of the Crime Act," he wrote back.

But Michael Salmon, who was the Catholic Church's point of contact for police at the time, confirming that the Church had operated under the unsigned agreement.

"The church assumed it was operational, we were practising the provisions of the MOU and dealing with the police under those provisions," he said.

"We had an understanding from police it was approved."

Mr Salmon, director of the Professional Standards Resource Group of the Catholic Church in NSW, said: "We had a line of communications with the police and all indications from the police were that the MOU was approved from their end."

However, a spokesperson for the NSW Police said: "The Church continued to co-operate with NSW Police but it did so without any protections assumed in an MOU, as such protections would not have been valid given the requirements of Section 316 of the Crimes Act."

Sources:

Radio Australia

ABC News

The Guardian

Image: Flickriver.com

The priest, Father Denis McAlinden, also moved from Maitland-Newcastle diocese to New Zealand for several months in 1984, relieving in country parishes in Hamilton diocese.

A woman from Hamilton diocese who said she was sexually abused as a child by McAlinden was paid compensation by Maitland-Newcastle diocese after she travelled to Australia with the support of Bishop Denis Browne of Hamilton.

The New South Wales commission of inquiry heard that Church authorities first received a report that McAlinden was abusing children in 1954.

He continued to abuse children aged as young as four or five over four decades.

The inquiry was told that one boy who was abused by McAlinden was required to do penance after he told his parish priest, "apparently for his sin in being abused".

In 1959, McAlinden wrote to his then bishop, asking to be sent on missionary work, despite the bishop having received at least one report of such abuse.

"It seems a shame that hundreds of thousands of people are just clamouring for the Faith in Africa and are deprived through a shortage of priests. In this way, I feel I could still serve the diocese," McAlinden wrote.

During the 1990s, the late Bishop Leo Clarke of Maitland-Newcastle asked McAlinden to petition the Holy See in Rome to request his laicisation.

"Your good name will be protected by the confidential nature of this process," Bishop Clarke wrote. "A speedy resolution of this matter would be in your interest as I have it on good authority that some people are threatening to take it to the police."

Bishop Clarke also wrote to the apostolic pro-nuncio in Canberra, asking him to "use his network communications to help expedite ... a very delicate matter".

Eventually the diocese paid McAlinden a pension after he agreed to retire to England and "retire from priestly ministry". In fact he travelled to the Philippines and resumed ministry.

McAlinden died in Western Australia in 2005 while NSW police were seeking to extradite him.

Sources:

The Australian

The Australian

Sydney Morning Herald

Newcastle Herald

Broken Rites

Image: Newcastle Herald

Troy Grant, a former police officer who is now a member of the state Parliament, said the nun visited his home and ‘‘provided me with false evidence and tipped off a priest''.

Grant told a special commission of inquiry in Newcastle that he was aware of collusion within the Church to hide serious sex offences as far back as 1974.

"There were individuals who acted completely inappropriately, commensurate with their pastoral care. I believe they acted illegally," he said.

"Their level of culpability has never been tested in the court system, they've never been questioned or put before their peers to answer for what they did," he said.

"What they did in 1974, 1975, 1981 and then 1995 meant that a lot of (church abuse) victims need not have been victims — that's where the tragedy is."

Grant was a strong lobbyist for the royal commission that is currently inquiring into the handling of child sex abuse claims, and has publicly called for the resignation of Cardinal George Pell of Sydney over his personal handling of cases.

Earlier, whistleblower cop Peter Fox — whose allegations of Church cover-ups sparked the NSW inquiry — gave evidence that Troy Grant had warned him about a "Catholic mafia" within the police force.

But speaking to media after giving evidence, Grant said he had never encountered a "Catholic mafia" within the police.

The commission will examine the extent to which Catholic Church officials co-operated with police, including whether any investigation was hindered by failure to report criminal offences.

Three senior clergy will testify — current Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson, who held senior positions in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the 1980s and early 90s, retired Bishop Michael Malone, and Australian Catholic Bishops Conference secretary Father Brian Lucas.

Sources:

The Australian

Newcastle Star

Sydney Morning Herald

Image: Newcastle Star