Retired bishop Ronald Mulkearns has died, aged 86
A former Catholic bishop accused of covering up the sexual abuse of children in Ballarat, Australia between the 1970s and 1990s has died.
Retired bishop Ronald Mulkearns died aged 86, the Catholic Church confirmed.
Last month he was asked once again to testify before a child sex abuse inquest following evidence from Cardinal George Pell.
Cardinal Pell said the bishop deceived him about the activities of notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.
Ridsdale committed more than 130 offences against young boys while working as a chaplain at Ballarat’s St Alipius school between the 1960s and the 1980s.
“I can’t nominate another bishop whose actions are so grave and inexplicable … His repeated refusal to act is, I think, absolutely extraordinary,” Cardinal Pell said of Bishop Mulkearns in March.
In February, Bishop Mulkearns told the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he was sorry for moving paedophile priests.
“I certainly regret that I didn’t deal differently with paedophilia. We had no idea, or I had no idea, of the effects of the incidents that took place,” he said.
One suspects the Bishop’s eternal rest might not be quite as restful as he was hoping.
Well, This Is What I Think 
The writer, sociologist, and Catholic priest Andrew Greeley got into hot water decades ago in America when he he tried to expose such behaviour in the church, so he wrote novels mentioning such things and apparently was in the Diocese of Chicago’s black books for years as they followed the tried and trusted ‘denial, denial, denial (move the priest!)’ method.
Since reading his books everything he said about such behaviours occurring has come true – and all over the world. I do hope the Diocese had apologised to him long before he died in 2013 – and that they apologised profusely and profoundly to him and the others who brought these vile things to light.
At least Cardinal Pell seems to be trying to stop these evil men – good on him if he is.
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Sadly most people think Cardinal Pell acted too late, and he has been very widely criticised to. Anyhow, an awful chapter in the Church’s history.
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