New South Wales Catholic Church Sex Case Deepens

I posted earlier about Rev. Thomas Doyle's thoughts on what the Vatican could/should do to address the never enduing flood of sexual abuse cases that have enveloped the Church worldwide. A story out of New South Wales shows that Doyle's recommendations have not and I suspect will never be implemented. They cut directly against the behavior that the Church has exhibited time and time again. Here are some story highlights from The Australian:

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THE former Catholic priest accused of involvement in an alleged child sex ring at a New South Wales school left Hurstville police station last night after 60 fresh charges were laid involving eight more of his former pupils. The young men came forward after their former chaplain and teacher, Brian Spillane, 65, was arrested in May and charged with sexually assaulting five students. Bathurst's St Stanislaus College has been at the centre of a police investigation by Strike Force Heador into claims of sexual abuse by Mr Spillane and two other former staff members over 20 years ago.

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Mr Spillane joined the school, which has both boarding and day students and is run by the Vincentians Fathers order, in the 1970s. He left for a time and returned in the mid-1980s, when he was school chaplain for a number of years. He left the school in the early 1990s. It is alleged the abuse happened during late-night charismatic prayer sessions which involved chanting.

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Last month, Mr Spillane appeared at Bathurst Local Court on 33 charges relating to sexual assault and acts of gross indecency on five former students when they were juveniles aged between 10 and 18.

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Police have also spoken to a former St Stanislaus teacher, Stephen Joseph Wade, who served 15 months in jail for a sex attack on a then Year 7 student in 1986.