THE Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has come under fire for writing a letter to its employees addressing clerical abuse, while also maintaining its silence towards the survivors of recently deceased paedophile priest Vincent Ryan.
Diocesan Administrator Father Greg Barker wrote in the "pastoral letter to the people of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle" dated June 21 that "our remorse and sorrow at the abuse we as a church failed to respond to adequately and appropriately and perpetrated at the hands of church men, both clerical and lay, is genuine".
