THE DIOCESE of Maitland-Newcastle told its clergy about the death of convicted paedophile priest Vincent Ryan "within the week" it occurred, but has still not directly contacted survivors of his abuse.
A Hunter priest who spoke to the Newcastle Herald on the condition of anonymity said the diocese included "a very brief notice" about Ryan's April 13 death in its regular weekly email from the bishop's office to clergy "some weeks ago".
"For us it would have been fairly soon after he died, we weren't told not to tell anybody, there was nothing secret about it... within the week I presume we would have been told," the priest said.
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A second source told The Herald the notice said 'Vincent was called home to God' and 'in accordance with his wishes he will be privately cremated with no public death notice', which would have caused a "dilemma" for the diocese.
Geoffrey Nash - whose brother Andrew died by suicide aged 13 - said the diocese's decision not to tell survivors or the community was the "most horrendous, callous, uncaring, un-Christian thing that anyone has done in the last couple of years".
"Why are they honouring the wishes of a dead convicted paedophile and putting that in front of the needs of the survivors and the families?" Mr Nash said.
The priest said any funeral would "have to have been in Sydney" and he didn't know where Ryan was buried.
"[The local clergy] would have had to do something about [the funeral] and I don't know what they did, nor do I know who they were," he said.
"I feel sure they would have honoured Vince's wishes, the funeral would have very quietly taken place without ceremony."
He said he didn't know if any Hunter clergy or diocesan representatives attended.
The priest said he and others did not expect the public's reaction to Ryan's death and the diocese.
"We're just so surprised that people have been feeling so tremendously hurt by that," he said.
"We're all sad, I feel very sad about it all, I'm sad that so many people are hurting so much and angry. That's taken me - and this is my failure I suppose - but it's taken me by surprise."
He said feelings of hurt had "gathered momentum through the reaction of different people".
"I just wonder how helpful that is, it's just renewing a lot of hurt in people, perhaps," he said.
"Maybe that was on the mind originally of the diocese failing to spread the news, they didn't want to be part of renewing people's hurt about it."
However he said he now thinks "something needs to be said from the diocese" and he could understand those who felt the diocese should have informed Ryan's survivors directly.
"I think that was a mistake," he said. "It could have been done better."
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