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This page displays the pictures and or names of proven, admitted or publicly accused sexual predatory clergy, current or former, from  dioceses in Australia.




Gerald_Ridsdale_w_George_Pell-5-1993.jpgIn the photo, Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale (left) walks to court, accompanied by his support person (Archbishop George Pell, then an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne), when Father Ridsdale was pleading guilty to his first batch of criminal charges of child sex assault in May 1993.


"Black-collar crime" — List of names




This page of Catholic cases was compiled by Broken Rites Australia researchers and was last updated on 20 July 2011.

Abused Archbishop John Hepworth ready to forgive

Archbishop Hepworth says he named his initial abuser in the Adelaide seminary as the late John Stockdale,
who worked as a priest in Bendigo. Stockdale died on December 31, 1995, reportedly in a sex cubicle at
Club 80, a "men-only" club in Collingwood, Melbourne.

The Archdiocese of Melbourne's Independent Commissioner, Peter O'Callaghan QC,
has processed and resolved Archbishop Hepworth's complaint against one of the three priests,
the late Ronald Pickering of Melbourne, in just over 12 months and left Archbishop Hepworth free to speak openly about it.
In an apology to Archbishop Hepworth dated August 26, [2011] Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart wrote:
"We cannot change what has happened . . . You may never be rid of the memories or the hurt . . .
On behalf of the Catholic Church and personally, I apologise to you and to those around you for the wrongs
and hurt you have suffered at the hands of Father Ronald Pickering."

Documents obtained by The Weekend Australian show Archbishop Hepworth's ordeal began in 1960 when he 
was 15 and newly enrolled at Adelaide's St Francis Xavier Seminary. The matter took another twist years later 
when one of Archbishop Hepworth's assailants tried to use the Seal of the Confessional to silence him, 
by confessing the abuse to him.





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