BY KYM ABC NEWS
Greg says paedophile priest Michael McArdle’s offending was known to the church.
A former altar boy who was allegedly sexually abused by a serial paedophile priest says he could have been spared if the Catholic Church enforced mandatory reporting of crimes admitted in the confessional.
By the time Father Michael McArdle allegedly targeted the then-12-year-old for oral sex, he had already been molesting children for a decade.
The abuse lasted for several months at the sacristy and presbytery of the Holy Rosary Church in Bundaberg, as well as during an overnight school camp, legal documents allege.
“It’s always in the back of your mind,” Greg* said.
“A couple of years ago I had a mental breakdown, I wanted to kill myself.
“But I’ve come through it — I think.”
Greg launched legal action in August against the Diocese of Rockhampton for the mental toll the abuse has taken on him, with his lawyers lodging a notice of claim for the civil suit.
Maurice Blackburn lawyer Jed McNamara, who is representing Greg, said an affidavit filed by McArdle in 2004 revealed he confessed 1,500 times to 30 different priests over a 25-year period.
McArdle, who resigned from the priesthood in 2000, was jailed in 2004 for six years for 62 indecent dealing charges against 14 boys and two girls over a 22-year period from 1965 in regional Catholic parishes across Queensland.
PHOTO Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge says lifting the confessional seal would do little to save young people.
ABC NEWS: LINCOLN ROTHALL
Mr McNamara said his client would be seeking to negotiate a settlement of the case for the psychological injury he suffered.
“If there were not recommendations (from the royal commission) for reporting of abuse then that enabled that abuse to reoccur and reoccur and reoccur — case in point, McArdle,” he said.
“For the better part of a decade before he abused my client … [McArdle] would confess, would be absolved, would go back out, would repeat that offending behaviour, would go back to confession and the cycle continued.”
PHOTO Lawyer Jed McNamara, Queensland head of abuse law at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, is representing a client who has launched legal action against the Diocese of Rockhampton.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended mandatory reporting to police of child abuse admitted in the confessional, leading to Queensland’s drafting of the proposed Child Sexual Offences Reform Bill.
It is currently being considered by the state’s Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee before being returned to Parliament for a vote.
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge has criticised the attempt at reform, saying lifting the confessional seal and enforcing mandatory reporting would do little to save young people.
Greg, however, disagrees.
“If somebody had stepped in way back then and got him out of the system earlier, it would have been a different life and I’m sure it would have been better,” he said.
“These are kids’ lives we’re dealing with and you only get one shot at life and if you can have a good start it makes all the difference.”
At times suffering depression and anxiety, Greg also turned to alcohol to cope.
Jobs have been hard to pin down, so too have romantic relationships.
“If that hadn’t have happened, where would I be now?
“I would be in a better position as far as life goes.”
PHOTO Archbishop Mark Coleridge has criticised the attempt to enforce mandatory reporting by priests.
AAP: CATHOLIC COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE BRISBANE/PETER CASAMENTO
Archbishop Coleridge is on an overseas holiday and unavailable for comment but his spokesperson directed the ABC to his submission to the committee considering the state legislation.
“The royal commission heard from a panel of six experienced priests with a combined history of more than 150 years as pastors,” Archbishop Coleridge wrote.
“The royal commission asked these priests if they had ever had someone confess a crime during the sacrament of penance.
“They told the royal commission that this had never happened.
“There are publicised examples of convicted priests claiming that they confessed their child abuse regularly.
“However, it must be noted that someone can confess very generally (for instance, ‘I broke the Sixth Commandment’,) without providing further detail.
“Perhaps former priests who have been found guilty of child abuse should not be so readily believed by media when they claim to have confessed their abuse when much of their life has been a lie.”
Queensland’s Transport Minister Mark Bailey tweeted this week over the Archbishop’s stance:
“I’m deeply disturbed the Brisbane Archbishop opposes new laws requiring priests to report child sexual abuse just like doctors/teachers/nurses,” he wrote.
“The secrecy, cover-ups, abuse must stop via stronger laws in Qld backing the royal commission recommendations.”
*Name withheld for legal reasons.
PAT SAYS
Priests are should be forced by civil laws to report child abuse they hear in Confession.
Other people, like doctors and therapists have that duty.
And their patients and clients are told that they have that duty.
A notice can be placed on a Confessional;
PLEASE BE AWARE
THAT PRIESTS ARE NOW MANDATED
TO REPORT CHILD ABUSE DISCUSSED IN CONFESSION.
Those who disagree argue that a priest is not mandated to report other criminal actions durin they hear in confession.
But there two important points:
1. Child abuse has been a pandemic.
2. The RC church has hidden all these crimes from the civil authorities.
Anyway, most Catholics today dont believe that confession to a priest is vital for God’s forgiveness.
Once we ask God’s forgiveness in prayer we are instantly forgiven.
And the anyway, the RCC used the Confessional to keep us trapped in lifelong guilt.
Having said that, I have had some wonderful experiences in Confession as a confessor and a penitent.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 