Paedophile Catholic church retirement fund boosted for priest on the run - Royal Commission

After being caught molesting kids, Father Ronald Pickering of the Melbourne church was given a prestigious honour by the Catholic church, allowing the church to then boost his retirement income as he fled Australia for England.

The church funded Father Pickering for nearly ten years, whilst telling those who wanted compensation for their abuse from the church that they had to take it up with Father Pickering himself.

Pickering died in 2009 and never faced justice in Australia for his crimes. Funded and protected by the church.

In early 1993, Pickering "retired" from his Melbourne parish and fled to England in the face of mounting allegations of sexual abuse. 

Despite being personally aware of complaints as early as 1986, then Melbourne Archbishop Frank Little ordered Pickering's retirement entitlements be boosted in the wake of his impromptu departure. 

"At this time the Archbishop does not intend appointing Father Pickering as Pastor Emeritus. However, he would appreciate your regarding Father Pickering, in this exceptional case, as qualifying for receipt of those monies which would normally be granted to PEs," the Priests Retirement Foundation was instructed. 

The prestigious honour entitled a retired priest to additional remuneration and allowances because of its prestige. 

Documents tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse show that a Pastor Emeritus received a pension and housing stipend worth $21,000 a year (circa 1998). 

But church leadership in Melbourne, including then Bishop George Pell, soon faced a new problem when they were notified by a bishop in Britain that Pickering was seeking work as a priest in a local parish. 

"Discussion focused on the need to protect the Archbishop [Little] and the diocese," notes from the 1993 meeting say. 

The leadership moved quickly to strip Pickering of his priestly faculties and to notify the British bishop that he was no longer in "good standing". 

But the church was also denying it had any financial or moral responsibility for him as victims began to press their claims against the church. 

"Your client should look to Reverend Pickering for compensation for any injuries he may have sustained", church law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth told the representative of one victim in 1994. The Age