THE Archbishop of Perth, the Most Revd Roger Herft, has apologised publicly to the people of Newcastle, the diocese north of Sydney where he was Bishop from 1993 to 2005, for not dealing adequately with allegations of clergy sexual abuse (News, 29 July).
In his third day in the witness box in the hearing on Newcastle diocese by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Archbishop Herft said that he had let people down badly in the light of the “sacred trust that the people of this region placed upon me”. He had let them down “in a way that remorse itself is a very poor emotion to express”, he said.
In his evidence to the Commission, Archbishop Herft had admitted to lapses in memory about some matters, and failure to deal with allegations of abuse against both clergy and lay church workers. In the case of a priest, now deceased, who has been accused of abuse, Archbishop Herft admitted to failing to act after threats had been made to take both him and the diocese to court when the priest was discovered possessing pornographic material.
He told the commission that he had changed his mind about priests as a result of the child sexual-abuse issue. Whereas he had previously believed the clergy were of “a very high moral and spiritual integrity”, he now had a more realistic view. He said that he had been deeply shocked to learn of abuse allegations against the former Dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, who has since been deposed from holy orders. This had “contributed significantly” to his change of view, he said.
The Newcastle hearing will resume in November.