Peter Joseph Connors (born 6 March 1937) is an Australian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as
Bishop of Ballarat from 1997 to 2012.
Biography
Connors was born in
Mordialloc
Mordialloc ( ) is a beachside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Mordialloc recorded a population of 8,886 at the ...
on 6 March 1937 and ordained as a priest on 23 July 1961. He was secretary to the
Archbishop of Melbourne,
Frank Little, from 1974 to 1976, then vicar-general of the Archdiocese of Melbourne until 1987.
He was consecrated as the
titular bishop
A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese.
By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...
of Temuniana in 1987 and appointed Bishop of Ballarat on 30 May 1997.
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...
accepted his resignation on 1 August 2012, not long after he reached the standard retirement age of 75. His retirement was described as "early" because he had anticipated that the search for his successor would require him to remain bishop for another year.
In 2015, Connors admitted to the
that he had failed to respond to reports of sexual abuse while Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop, and that there was no excuse for failing to escalate complaints and allegations against priests under his charge.
[ The royal commission confirmed that an early leaked police report, written by Ballarat Detective Kevin Carson, said the church seemed to have known about high rates of suicides linked to abuse by convicted child sex offenders Brother Robert Charles Best and Father Gerald Ridsdale, and others, but had remained silent.
In 2013, he had also told the Commission that his predecessor in Ballarat, Bishop ]Ronald Mulkearns
Ronald Austin Mulkearns (11 November 1930 – 3 April 2016) was the bishop emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat in Ballarat, Australia, a diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Melbourne. He resigned as bishop on 30 May 1997. Th ...
, had shown great naivety in moving priests from one parish to another when they were known to have abused children.Damascus College
Damascus College is Ballarat’s only Catholic Church, Catholic co-educational secondary college. It was established in 1995 after three separate Catholic colleges, St Martin's in the Pines, Sacred Heart College, Ballarat, Sacred Heart College a ...
, constructed in 2012 for year 9 and 10 students, was named after Connors. This naming is now under review by the school following the findings from the Royal Commission.
See also
*Catholic Church in Australia
The Catholic Church in Australia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the spiritual and administrative leadership of the Holy See. From origins as a suppressed, mainly Irish minority in early colonial times, the church has grow ...
References
External links
Roman Catholic bishops of Ballarat
1937 births
Living people
Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals in Australia
20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Australia
Roman Catholic bishops of Melbourne
People from Mordialloc, Victoria
Religious leaders from Melbourne
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