The Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone, says Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson needs to clarify what he knew about paedophile priest Denis McAlinden.

The diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, north of Sydney, has been the subject of a major police investigation called Strike Force Georgiana.

In recent weeks, a former Catholic school principal and two victims of abuse at the hands of the late McAlinden have gone to the police alleging that Archbishop Wilson and his superiors were part of a “conspiracy of silence” or an alleged “cover-up” in relation to McAlinden’s crimes.

On victim, who wants to remain anonymous, says she thought McAlinden would be brought to justice.

“I just presumed it would be jail because other clergy have been jailed for offences against children and he seemed to be able to skip around the countryside and never ever got caught and never even had the police investigating him,” she said.

However Bishop Malone has told the ABC that McAlinden’s behaviour was known about years before.

“I think certainly there was enough known about his predilections, but whether sufficient was known to act on them is a point that needs to be clarified by Philip Wilson seriously,” he said.

Last month on ABC1’s Lateline, Peter Gogarty – a victim of another Hunter Valley priest Jim Fletcher – claimed that Archbishop Wilson lived in the Old Bishop’s House in Maitland when Fletcher sexually abused him there in the mid-to-late 1970s. This was covered on this site in an alarming & disturbing separate story.

At publication, there has been no response to the questions put to Archbishop Wilson arising from this story.

ABC Story here…