In the Sydney District Court on 18 October 1994, Father Peter Lewis Comensoli (then aged 55, of the Wollongong diocese, south of Sydney) was sentenced to 24 months jail (18 months minimum) after pleading guilty to the indecent assault of altar boys. His conviction was reported in Sydney and Wollongong newspapers.

Despite this conviction, the annual edition of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy (published by the National Council of Priests) continued to include the "Reverend" Peter Lewis Comensoli, describing him as a "supplementary priest" of the Wollongong diocese. His name was not dropped from the annual Australian Catholic directories until 2010 — sixteen years after his conviction.

Background

By the 1980s, according to the annual Australian Catholic Directory for 1988, he was also a senior member of the Wollongong Diocesan Tribunal, which deals with such things as applications for a marriage annulment. (It is not clear what qualified Comensoli to be involved in dealing with people's marriages.)

Comensoli's adult parishioners originally presumed that he was a trustworthy priest. He befriended young boys, paying them well for doing odd jobs. But behind the presbytery doors he gave alcohol to boys, played pornographic videos, used obscene language and wrestled naked with the boys, indecently handling them.

Complaints

In 1993, Wollongong's Illawarra Mercury daily newspaper decided to expose Father Comensoli and Brother Evans. These articles led to a police investigation of Comensoli and Evans.

Two of Comensoli's victims agreed to make a signed, sworn police statement. These two victims were aged 10 and 17, when they were altar boys at one of Comensoli's earlier parishes — St Mary's parish in Berkeley, in urban Wollongong.

Comsensoli then resigned from his current parish (St Brigid's at Gwynneville, in urban Wollongong). The Wollongong diocese leadership accepted the resignation. A diocesan spokesman was quoted in the Mercury (9 November 1993, page 1) as saying: "He [Fr Comensoli] will always be a priest of the diocese but he is not working in the diocese at the moment."

Court proceedings

Regarding the 10-year-old boy, Comensoli pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting him during a 12-month period in 1979-80 on occasions when the altar boy spent the night at the parish presbytery with the permission of his parents. The court was told that Comensoli would touch the boy's genitals while wrestling him and used indecent language in front of him. He gave cigarettes and alcohol to the boy. Eventually, Comensoli showed pornographic videos to the child, followed by further wrestling, and Comensoli then removed the child's trousers and mauled his genitals.

Regarding the 17-year-old boy, the assault occurred on one occasion in 1982-83 at the parish presbytery when Comensoli provided the youth with alcohol before showing him pornographic videos, talking to him in a grossly sexual manner and then taking hold of the young man's genital area during a wrestle.

During pre-sentencing submissions by the defence, Bishop Patrick Power (of the Canberra-Goulburn diocese) appeared in court as a defence witness. He said Comensoli had been ordained at a time when priests were not given "any help at all in terms of personal development particularly to terms of coping with our sexuality or even recognizing our sexuality."

Sentencing Comensoli, Judge Angela Karpin told a courtroom full of clergymen and parishioners: "Those in a position of trust must know that they will not be treated lightly if they offend."

The judge sentenced Comensoli to two years in prison for the assault of the 10-year-old boy with a minimum term of 12 months and a cumulative term of six months to prison for the assault on the 17-year-old. This indicated that Comensoli was scheduled to remain in prison until at least April 1996. The judge ordered that Comensoli be kept in protective custody.

Other victims?

Father Maurie Crocker, the Wollongong priest who supported the victims in the Comensoli case, told Broken Rites in a phone conversation on 30 March 1995: "There are still other Comensoli victims out there. They are hesitant to come forward."

According to Fr Crocker, one Comensoli victim had become a teacher in a Catholic school. This man was told by the church authorities:'Remember who you work for.'

Still "Reverend"

Broken Rites has researched Comensoli's subsequent movements in the annual editions of the Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy, published by the National Council of Priests.

• From 1994 onwards (during the prosecution process and later While he was in jail), this directory listed him as "Reverend" Peter Lewis Comensoli, a "supplementary priest of the Wollongong diocese, on leave", with a postal address care of the Wollongong diocesan office. After he left jail, this listing continued every year until (and including) 2002.

• From 2003 until 2006, this directory still described as "a supplementary priest, on leave from the Wollongong diocese" but his postal address was listed as a Post Office Box in Thornbury, a suburb of Melbourne (until 2005) and at a Post Office Box in Melbourne's Coburg area in 2006.

• Wollongong sources told Broken Rites in 2006 that Father Peter Comensoli was doing some work for an order of Religious Brothers in Melbourne.

• In 2007 and 2008, the directory still described him as a "supplementary priest of the Wollongong diocese" but it now also described him as "retired", instead of "on leave". In 2008 his postal address was care of the Wollongong diocesan office. His name disappeared from the Australian Catholic directories in 2010.

Footnote

For more about Father Maurie Crocker, the brave Wollongong priest who helped to expose Fr Peter Lewis Comensoli and Christian Brother Michael Evans, see another Broken Rites article here.