The BBC reports he has been charged with rape and a string of historical sexual offences, some against children.

Saunders pleaded not guilty to all charges.

He was granted bail.

Saunders will appear again in the Broome Magistrates Court on 17 June 2024.

The allegations, from 2008, involve incidents in Broome and the remote towns of Kununurra and Kalumburu. The Broome diocese covers 773,000 sq km and serves a population of over 50,000.

Approximately the size of Turkey and equivalently the size of the 37th largest country in the world, the diocese has only 9 parishes, 13 Catholic schools and 1 university.

Saunders resigned as Bishop of Broome in 2021 amidst a failed police investigation and a media storm over the allegations.

The BBC reports that Saunders is well known for socialising, advocacy work and escorting young men on camping and fishing trips.

He is a long-time powerful figure within the local community. There is also a beer named after him.

Church co-operates with civil authorities

A subsequent Vatican investigation into the allegations against Saunders was initiated in 2022, further intensifying scrutiny.

At one point, the West Australian politicians accused the Church of refusing to hand the results of its investigation over to the Police.

However, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) responded firmly, denying these allegations.

It said that a copy of the Vatican report was already in the possession of Western Australia Police Deputy Commissioner Allan Adams.

"The Church and Western Australia Police remain in ongoing and collaborative contact in relation to this matter" ....... "the Church will continue to offer full transparency and cooperation with the WA Police" says a statement from the ACBC.

The results of the Vatican investigation gave West Australian Police grounds to mount a second investigation and ultimately press charges and arrest the former Broome bishop.

The ACBC, through Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, expressed its commitment to a thorough investigation.

Costelloe emphasised the church's full cooperation with police efforts and underscored the gravity of the allegations.

"Allegations against the former Bishop of Broome, Christopher Saunders, are very serious and deeply distressing, especially for those making those allegations" said Archbishop Costelloe.

"It is right and proper, and indeed necessary that all such allegations be thoroughly investigated."

The charges against Saunders come in the wake of high-profile cases within the Australian Catholic Church, including Cardinal George Pell's conviction and subsequent acquittal of child sexual abuse charges, and former Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson's overturned conviction for covering up abuse.

Sources

• BBC
• Catholic Weekly
• CathNews (Published September 25, 2023)
• RNS

The police have twice investigated Saunders (73) and not charged him, and are now calling on Church authorities to allow them to see the report.

The Vatican report identifies Saunders as a "predator" who sexually assaulted four Aboriginal men and boys and groomed dozens more.

It also says Saunders spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on grooming his victims by plying them with gifts of alcohol, phones, cash and travel.

Besides slamming Saunders' behaviour, the Vatican report is also critical of the two West Australian police investigations into the bishop's alleged offending and their decision not to charge him.

The Vatican noted the first complaint about Saunders was made in 2018. Police began investigating and by March 2020 Saunders had stood aside from his long-standing role as head of the diocese.

In 2020, Australia's Channel 7 heard about the investigation. It later reported that Saunders ordered his staff to collect and burn hundreds of office documents, files and photographs after the abuse allegations went to air.

In May 2021, just over a year after Saunders stood aside, the police decided not to press criminal charges against him. They said the ages of the victims at the time of the alleged acts could not be substantiated through evidence at that time.

It is an outcome that did not impress the Vatican investigators who say the police "mishandled" the inquiry for various reasons.

These included "limited resourcing and competing priorities, a lack of will by senior management to tackle the systemic issues, a strained ­relationship between police and the Kimberley Aboriginal Legal Service, and evidence gaps relating to establishing the ages of the victims at the time of the alleged offences".

Australian Catholic bishops respond

In a statement this week, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference described the allegations as "very serious and deeply distressing, especially for those making the allegations."

It said the independent report had been provided to the Holy See, with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith continuing the investigation.

Conference president Archbishop Timothy Costelloe explained the Church's investigation into allegations against Saunders couldn't start until the Western Australia Police Force inquiries had concluded in 2021.

In 2022, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge oversaw the Church's investigation for the Vatican.

Costelloe entrusted the process to an experienced and independent specialist investigations organisation. Its comprehensive inquiries examined several serious allegations.

"That independent report has been provided to the Holy See, with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith continuing the investigation.

"We will respect the enduring confidential nature of this process ... Saunders, who has maintained his innocence, is able to ...[communicate] directly with the Holy See.

"In due time, the Holy See will make its determinations. It is hoped that this will not be unduly delayed."
Source

• The Australian
• The Guardian
• The West Australian
• Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

Cardinal Marc Ouellet (pictured) issued a statement via the Vatican press office after the Holy See said an investigation into the woman's allegations determined the case didn't warrant further investigation or canonical trial.

The statements responded to lawyers in Quebec who filed a class-action complaint by 101 alleged victims accusing 88 prelates of sexual abuse and assault over decades.

He said he would vigorously fight the "false" and "defamatory" accusations if the case proceeds.

"I firmly deny having made inappropriate gestures against her person and consider the interpretation and diffusion of these accusations as sexual aggression to be defamatory," he said.

If the lawsuit proceeds, "I intend to actively participate so that the truth is established and my innocence is recognised".

The Vatican's statement said that after a preliminary investigation, Pope Francis had concluded there were "insufficient elements" to open a formal canonical trial for sexual assault by Cardinal Ouellet against a person identified only as "F".

Through her lawyer, Ouellet's alleged victim told The Pillar that she was "disappointed" in the Holy See's decision. She charged that the Vatican had mishandled her complaint.

Canadian media reported that Ouellet had been accused of inappropriately touching the woman on several occasions. It alleged he gave her unwanted hugs, massages and kisses on the cheek and touched her posterior at a 2010 event. The woman alleged that on one occasion, Ouellet "held her firmly against him, caressing her back with his hands".

The touching was "quite intrusive … for someone who is my superior, who is the archbishop of Quebec," the unnamed woman told Radio-Canada.

The 78-year-old cardinal has served as head of the Dicastery for Bishops for more than a decade. In that position, Ouellet worked closely with Francis to select bishops worldwide. The cardinal has been touted as a future pope.

Sources

• CruxNow
• The Pillar
• Religion News
• CathNews New Zealand

The daughter of a Vatican police officer, Orlandi was 15 when she left a music class on 22 June 1983. She has not been seen since.

"The time has finally come to reach the truth and give justice to this girl after decades of silence," the family's lawyer Laura Sgrò says.

The Vatican authorised the investigation after Sgrò received an anonymous tip-off telling her to "look where the angel is pointing" and check the inside a marble-topped grave.

This prompted her to ask for the tomb to be opened.

Orlandi's family says Pope Francis's decision to open the Vatican archives for the pontificate of Pius XII prompted them ask him to have the tomb opened.

Her brother Pietro, who has led a decades-long campaign to find out what happened to his sister, is in favour of the new investigation.

"After 35 years without cooperation, the start of an investigation is an important breakthrough," he says.

Source

• The Guardian
• Source: christophereverard.co.uk

Last week, two archbishops were sent to Memphis on a three-day fact-finding mission.

The archbishops' visit (called an "Apostolic Visitation)," involved them meeting with clergy and parishioners. They will develop a report of their findings and recommendations then send it to the Vatican.

The investigation is said to have been organised by the Apostolic Nuncio, who is the Vatican's diplomatic representative in Washington.

The subject of the investigation is Martin Holley, who was appointed as bishop to the diocese in August 2016. His reassignment of the majority of the active priests in the diocese's 42 parishes by June 2017 is of particular interest to the investigation.

"You don't move 74 percent of the priests in the first few months of your administration," Rev. Jim Danner wrote in June 2017 to Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio.

"Especially if they only have one year before retirement or only have under two years in their present assignment. This is unfair to the priests and their faithful service and the People of God in the Diocese."

Protesting their priest's reassignment, one parishioner explained during the priest's two-year tenure, the parish was growing, "participation in masses and charitable ministries increased, donations to our debt went up exponentially, tithing was up and people were coming in from all other churches to hear his homilies."

Many parishioners have left their home churches and moved to others, or just left. One parishioner says it seems as if there are about 25 percent fewer people at Mass.

"It's sad that people have left because of the transfers of priests," the parishioner says.

"I do believe many people don't know the bishop. He is new. They haven't given him a chance."

Holley supporters say he is "a holy and thoughtful man." Reassigning priests is normal and some of the transfers were overdue, they say.

Source

• Commercial Appeal
• Local Memphis
• Image: The Commercial Appeal