Abuse royal commission: Mulkearns death leaves Pell isolated

The death of Ronald Mulkearns has left George Pell as the standout senior church figure to face the royal commission.

Bishop Ronald Mulkearns has died, aged 85. Picture: Mike Dugdale

The death of Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who shifted pedophile priests between western Victorian parishes to conceal their offending, has left George Pell as the standout senior church figure to face the royal commission findings into the Ballarat scandal.

Bishop Mulkearns’s death yesterday morning all but brings to an end the child sex abuse royal commission’s examination of the abuses of hundreds of children committed in the Catholic diocese of Ballarat between the 1960s and 90s.

Bishop Mulkearns, who was 85, living in a nursing home and stricken with cancer, was part-way through his testimony to the royal commission, having run a criminally negligent diocese from 1971 to 1997 with the worst record of Catholic sex abuse in Australia.

Cardinal Pell became ­embroiled in controversy over his tenure as a priest in the Ballarat diocese under Bishop Mulkearns and has faced intense questioning over what he knew — and when — about offending.

While Cardinal Pell, now the world’s third most senior Catholic, was a relatively junior clergyman in the Ballarat diocese between 1971 and 1985, he has faced relentless criticism for ­allegedly failing to detect or act on abuse in his home region. He served under Bishop Mulkearns as a member of the College of Consultors for the diocese ­between 1977 and 1984 when ­decisions were made about the movement of serial predator Gerald Ridsdale. Cardinal Pell has denied knowing Ridsdale was an offender when he was moved.

Bishop Mulkearns gave evidence in February that he retired in 1997 because he was not handling problems with pedophile priests as well as he should have.

“I’m terribly sorry that I didn’t do things differently in that time, but I didn’t really know what to do, or how to do it,” he said.

Incumbent Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird yesterday distanced himself from the Mulkearns ­legacy but praised his service more broadly to the church.

Other sex offenders in the Ballarat diocese have included former Christian Brothers Edward “Ted” Dowlan, Gerald Leo Fitzgerald (who died while being ­investigated), Stephen Farrell and Robert Best.

Monsignor John Day died in 1978 without being charged following collusion between the police force and the church.

Former priest Paul David Ryan told the commission that Bishop Mulkearns buried his head in the sand with regard to sexual issues in the diocese. Ryan pleaded guilty in 2006 to indecent assault in 1990 and 1991.

One sex abuse victim, Paul Levey, summed up the victims’ mixed feelings about the death of Bishop Mulkearns. “I just think (he) has taken a lot of secrets to the grave,” he said. “I call him the keeper of secrets.”

He said Cardinal Pell was the last prominent clerical figure remaining in a position of power from that Ballarat era.

Mr Levey was abused over several months when he lived with Ridsdale at the presbytery in the western Victorian town of Mortlake in 1982.

Ridsdale served under Bishop Mulkearns. When complaints were made about his offending, he was moved by the bishop between parishes in Victoria as well as to a posting in NSW.

Bishop Mulkearns told the commission he wanted to protect the reputation of the church and make sure the “incidents” did not continue.

“I tried to get treatment for incidents that I knew about but, as I say, there were a lot of incidents that I don’t know because they simply weren’t admitting them,” he said.

Cardinal Pell, a critic of Bishop Mulkearns, caused uproar when he appeared to be dismissive of the Ridsdale offending during recent commission evidence in Rome.

The royal commission had heard a police investigation into Ridsdale found his offending was common knowledge among ­parishioners.

Cardinal Pell had repeatedly denied knowledge of Ridsdale’s offending in the 70s: “I didn’t know whether it was common knowledge or whether it wasn’t.

“It’s a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me.”

When asked why Ridsdale’s case was not of interest, he replied: “The suffering, of course, was real and I very much regret that but I had no reason to turn my mind to the extent of the evil that Ridsdale had perpetrated.”

In 1993, Cardinal Pell supported Ridsdale as Ridsdale went to court facing sex offences.

Lawyer Viv Waller has 17 cases before the Victorian Supreme Court involving victims abused by Ridsdale that name Bishop Mulkearns as the defendant.

She said the cases already issued could continue and it was possible Bishop Bird would step in and agree to be the defendant in future cases.