Catholic
Church leaders buried their heads about clergy abusing children in
Ballarat and should have made victims a priority, a convicted priest has
told the child abuse royal commission. Paul
David Ryan, 66, told the commission he could not explain how so many
notorious pedophiles came to operate in Ballarat diocese at the same
time.
The
priest proposed the culture of the diocese may have given rise to
pedophilia, as well as protecting the offending clergymen in hopes of
avoiding a scandal. 'And that allowed me to
happen too, even though I was independent of them,' Ryan told the
commission during a private hearing, according to a tendered transcript.