There have been many grim days for Francis Sullivan
over the past few years, but none worse than the day in 2015 when
Gerald Ridsdale’s face was broadcast live into a Ballarat hearing room
from Victoria’s Ararat prison. Sullivan works for the Catholic Church as
the CEO of its Truth, Justice and Healing Council, and is tasked with
dealing with the almighty mess of child abuse.
On
this day, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child
Sexual Abuse wanted answers from Ridsdale about what his superiors knew
and when. Ridsdale is a child rapist, a Catholic priest convicted of
abusing more than 50 kids, some as young as four. The first complaints
to the church about his abuse were in the early 1960s, within a year of
his ordination, and each time his crimes became an embarrassment he was
shifted to a fresh parish where he offended again.