Father Brian Lucas, the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops conference, said he would never betray the trust of a victim if they didn't want to go to police about abuse allegations.

The inquiry is investigating claims the Catholic Church covered up abuse by two Maitland-Newcastle priests, Father James Fletcher and Father Denis McAlinden.

Father Lucas, a former lawyer, told the inquiry he had a special role in the 1990s around New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory to persuade paedophile priests to resign.

Father Lucas said he dealt with about 35 priests, "seducing" more than 10 of them with "strong armed" tactics into agreeing to resign the priesthood.

He said the best way of keeping children safe from priestly abuse was to take the offending priest out of the ministry, and that was his priority.

He said "it staggers me and shocks me" that McAlinden practised as a priest and worked at a school of 7000 children in the Philippines after his priestly faculties were removed in Australia in 1993.

Father Lucas said he took no notes during his interviews with the priests. Questioned by counsel, he agreed that this was because he did not want notes disclosed in any subsequent legal process, but also said if he took notes the priests would not have said anything.

He said it was a "serious and well understood dilemma" within church legal circles that clergy risked being charged with the crime of misprision of a felony, or concealing a serious offence, if they did not go to police with victims' complaints when victims did not want them to.

He said the Church's reputation or the risk of scandal was "irrelevant" to him in a situation where he had to choose between risking criminal liability for misprision of a felony and betraying a victim's wishes. He would choose to respect the victim's wishes, he said.

Sources:

7 News

ABC

South Coast Register

Image: Sydney Morning Herald

The inquiry is in response to widespread media reports about the activities of a so-called Father F — which have also prompted calls for a royal commission into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia.

The alleged abuse occurred in the dioceses of Armidale and Parramatta in the 1980s. Mr Antony Whitlam, the son of former prime minister Gough Whitlam, is a former federal Labor politician.

The dioceses said they did not intend the inquiry to supplant or replace any investigations the police or other authorities might undertake.

Father F, who has not been publicly named for legal reasons, reportedly admitted he "sexually interfered with" five boys aged about 10 or 11 between 1982 and 1984.

He made this admission during a 1992 meeting with three senior Sydney clergy — Father Brian Lucas (now general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference), Father Wayne Peters (now vicar-general of Armidale) and Father John Usher (now chancellor of Sydney archdiocese).

Conflicting accounts of the meeting have emerged since the story first aired on the ABC's Four Corners television programme. Father Lucas said admissions of "wrongdoing" were made, but Father F did not name his victims so the Church did not advise the police.

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney said he had been unaware of the meeting until contacted by the ABC. "I sought details and Monsignor Usher informed me, after contacting Father Lucas and Monsignor Peters, that the recollection of the three priests was that no admissions of actual criminal conduct were made at that meeting."

Father F had his priestly faculties removed in 1992 and was laicised in 2005. He now lives in Armidale diocese.

Two of the boys he allegedly abused reportedly received substantial compensation payments from the Church but later committed suicide.

Sources:

Sydney Morning Herald

Diocese of Parramatta

ABC

Image: ABC