Vatican shares investigation into child abuse allegations against Australian bishop with police

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Vatican had shared with police the results of an internal investigation into a former Australian bishop over allegations of child sexual abuse and the church would cooperate fully with criminal investigators, a cleric said Friday.

The Catholic Church announced the release of its investigative report into former Bishop Christopher Saunders three days after Western Australia Police publicly revealed it had requested a copy.

“The church will continue to offer full transparency and cooperation with WA Police,” Bishop Michael Morrissey, who replaced Saunders in the Diocese of Broome in 2021, said in a statement.

“The church encourages anyone who has experienced abuse or suspects abuse within the community to come forward and report it to the police,” Morrissey added.

Saunders, now 73, denied any wrongdoing and refused to participate in the Vatican investigation, which began last year, the church said.

Resigned in 2021 as bishop of Broome, an outback diocese in northwest Australia larger than France but with a population of just 50,000, after police announced they had dropped a sex crimes investigation. He had resigned a year earlier after the media reported the allegations.

The Vatican confirmed this week that it had completed its investigation into Saunders which it said could not have started before the police investigation ended.

The confirmation followed media reports on Monday that the 200-page Vatican report found Saunders likely sexually assaulted four Indigenous youth and potentially groomed 67 other Indigenous youth and men.

The church refuses to publicly detail the allegations that were investigated.

Police had conducted two investigations into the allegations against Saunders between 2018 and 2020. Prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

Requesting the Vatican report, a police statement said Tuesday: “If more information comes to light, the police will investigate.”

Morrissey said the Vatican report had been given to Western Australia’s deputy police commissioner, Allan Adams. Morrissey did not say when.

The church and police “remain in ongoing and collaborative contact on the matter,” Morrissey said.

On Friday, police declined to comment on what they intended to do with the report.

Saunders, who continues to hold the ecclesiastical title of bishop, is now Australia’s most senior cleric accused of child abuse in a scandal that has engulfed the church around the world.

Cardinal George Pell was the third-highest-ranking cleric at the Vatican when he was convicted in an Australian court in 2018 of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choir boys at a Melbourne cathedral in 1996, when Pell was archbishop.

Pell spent 13 months in prison before the convictions were overturned on appeal. He maintained his innocence until his death in Rome in January.

Saunders began working in Broome as a deacon in 1975 and became a bishop in 1996.