Police are looking into allegations made against a top Catholic Church official relating to his time in Sydney in the 1970s, according to the archdiocese.
An Australian Catholic bishop accused of using his post to groom young Indigenous men and sexually assault them is also the subject of allegations that date back to his time as a Sydney priest in the 1970s.
It comes as the priest who first blew the whistle on Saunders has given a harrowing account of the night in 2018 the first alleged victim approached him over beers at a pub in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. “He was bawling his eyes out, he was absolutely devastated. That’s how I knew he was telling the truth. If he was making up a bullshit story, his emotions wouldn’t be real.”
Purnell said the support of others had helped him come to terms with his own trauma, without his life being derailed by alcohol and drugs.Purnell called on the Vatican not only to defrock Saunders but to excommunicate him from the church.Saunders is the highest-ranked Catholic in the country under investigation for sexual misconduct.
Saunders is still living in the Broome diocese and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said he had refused to obey a Vatican order to leave the area. Perth archbishop and Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Timothy Costelloe said the allegations against Saunders were “very serious and deeply distressing”.
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