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The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is being sued over the alleged sexual abuse of two school students in the 1970s and ’80s by a priest who was found by the church to be a paedophile in 2005 and continued to perform clerical duties for more than a decade.
Father Joseph Doyle, who died in 2021, has been accused of sexual abuse by two former students of Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Bayswater, where he served as parish priest for 37 years until his abrupt departure in 2005.
Father Joseph Doyle, who died in 2021, is the subject of legal action by two former students of a Bayswater school.Credit: Simon Schluter
Doyle allegedly molested and raped an 8-year-old boy in 1979 after promising to make him captain of the school’s football team, according to a writ filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria against the church late last year.
It is alleged in court documents that Doyle said, “Jesus won’t forget this”, when the boy attempted to spurn his sexual advances. On another occasion, Doyle is accused of exposing himself to the student while administering the sacrament of confession.
In a second lawsuit against the church, filed last month, Doyle is accused of raping a year 5 girl in the presbytery after befriending her parents in 1989. He allegedly “groomed” the girl by asking her to sit on his lap at the parish school.
“Following the abuse, Doyle informed the plaintiff’s parents that she had been a ‘naughty girl’,” according to the statement of claim.
Maurice Blackburn lawyer John Rule, who is representing both plaintiffs, accused Doyle of grooming families before preying on their children.
“He wasn’t satisfied with sexually abusing kids, he had to psychologically torment them as well.
“Doyle tore apart so many lives and got away with it. He was allowed to retire quietly by the church without his parish knowing why. The police weren’t notified of his offending and he was able to keep his luxuries and allowances,” Rule said.
Rule said he was concerned the church could request the court to grant a permanent stay in the case because of the time that had elapsed since Doyle’s alleged offending.
“We have seen a rise in defendants using permanent stay applications in historical abuse cases to try and snuff out client’s rights,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne said it would be inappropriate to comment while the matter was before the court, including commenting on whether the church would apply for a permanent stay order.
The lawsuits make numerous allegations about the church’s negligence in how it managed Doyle and its failure to adequately respond to repeated allegations of child sexual abuse made against him.
This included “creating a culture within the Archdiocese which tolerated sexual abuse by reason of the lack of investigation of allegations of abuse, lack of punishment of priests for sexual abuse and demonstrating a willingness to forgive priests for abuse without referral to Victoria Police”, according to one of the statements of claim.
In 2005, the church’s independent commissioner, Peter O’Callaghan, QC – who investigated claims of child sexual abuse on behalf of the Melbourne Archdiocese – found Doyle had abused two boys during the 1970s.
However, O’Callaghan’s report on the abuse was never referred to police.
Doyle was banned from practising as a priest by order of the Archdiocese and the Vatican – known as the withdrawal of faculties – which prevented him from conducting mass, last rites, blessings, weddings or funerals. He was also removed from his position in the Bayswater parish that year.
But the church kept the reason for Doyle’s sudden departure a secret from parishioners for more than a decade, with then vicar-general Bishop Les Tomlinson telling the congregation in 2005 that Doyle had simply retired.
The abuse findings were only publicly acknowledged by the church after the cover-up was exposed by The Age in 2016. The Archdiocese also issued an apology for its actions in concealing Doyle’s offending and the real reason for his departure.
Despite the order banning him from acting as a priest, Doyle continued to provide pastoral care to parishioners for more than a decade with the apparent complicity and silence of church authorities.
This included delivering mass alongside Bishop Tomlinson at a church in Mansfield in 2012.
Despite his disobedience, the archdiocese continued to financially support Doyle and claimed to be powerless to stop him from violating the terms of his ban.
“Joe has been pushing the boundaries. I think he is in denial about the seriousness of what has happened, and I suspect that this playing down of the seriousness may be shared by some of his confreres,” Archbishop Hart wrote in 2013 in a letter obtained by The Age in 2016.
“I have acted with the strongest resolve in these matters, but Joe has been particularly difficult.”
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