One of the oldest Catholics in the nation to be accused of sex crimes is an Australian bishop who is being accused of rape and indecent abuse.
On Wednesday night, child abuse detectives in Western Australia took action in response to a powerful internal Vatican probe that led to the arrest of Emeritus Bishop Christopher Alan Saunders.
He is accused with two charges of sexual intercourse without consent, which is the legal equivalent of rape, and fourteen counts of unlawful and indecent assault, according to the police.
The 74-year-old, who is due to front court on Thursday, has also been charged with three counts of “indecently dealing with a child” between 16 and 18 years old.
Court documents show Saunders’ alleged offences took place between 2008 and 2014.
For more than 20 years, Saunders presided over the Diocese of Broome, a sweeping coastal region in northwest Australia dotted with dozens of remote Aboriginal communities.
When the first reports of his alleged sexual assault appeared in the local media in 2020, he resigned from his position as bishop but kept his honorific title of “emeritus bishop”.
Saunders has remained unwavering in his denials, and an initial police inquiry was unable to produce enough evidence to bring charges against him.
However, persistent rumors about the cleric prompted the Vatican to use broad authorities initially granted by Pope Francis to begin its own investigation in 2022.
In order to assist the church in looking into allegations of sexual assault at the highest levels, the powers known as “Vos estis lux mundi” (which translates to “You are the light of the world” in Latin) were developed in 2019.
The confidential church findings were later shared with police, who subsequently re-opened their investigation.
George Pell, the late Australian cardinal and Vatican powerbroker, was imprisoned on sexual abuse charges in 2019 — but his convictions were quashed the next year.
