Australian bishop Christopher Saunders has been charged with rape and a string of historical sex offences – some against children.
The 74-year-old was arrested in Broome on Wednesday, after parallel investigations ordered by Western Australian police and the Pope.
Mr Saunders, who has denied allegations in the past, was refused bail and will appear in court on Thursday.
He is one of the most senior Catholics to face charges of this nature.
Mr Saunders is accused of two counts of rape, 14 counts of unlawful and indecent assault, and three counts of indecently dealing with a child as a person in authority.
The alleged offending occurred in the remote Western Australian towns of Broome, Kununurra and the Aboriginal community of Kalumburu between 2008 and 2014.
Aside from the late Cardinal George Pell, who was jailed and then acquitted, Mr Saunders is the most senior Catholic official in the country to be charged with child sex offences.
In a statement on Thursday, The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference promised to cooperate with police, and said the charges against Mr Saunders were “very serious and deeply distressing, especially for those making those allegations”.
“It is right and proper, and indeed necessary, that all such allegations be thoroughly investigated,” Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said.
First ordained in 1976, Mr Saunders has spent most of his career in the remote Kimberley region in the nation’s north-west corner, and was appointed Bishop of Broome in 1996.
The diocese stretches about 770,000 sq km (297,000 sq miles) – an area roughly the size of Turkey – and encompasses some of the most remote parts of the country.
Well known for socialising, his advocacy work, and escorting young men on camping and fishing trips, Mr Saunders has long been a powerful figure within the local community. He even has a beer named after him.
For years, he has faced dual investigations over allegations of sexual abuse made by several Aboriginal men from communities in his area.
The accusations were first aired in 2020, but the initial police investigation that followed was closed without charge.
He voluntarily stood down as the Bishop of Broome in 2020, but remains an emeritus bishop.
However after a historic inquiry was ordered by the Pope – and its 200-page report subsequently leaked to media last year – police began a new investigation.
Only a handful of Vos Estis Lux Mundi inquiries have been undertaken around the world. Meaning “You Are the Light of the World” in Latin, Vos Estis investigations are commissioned by the pontiff and were introduced in 2019 to combat sexual abuse and take action against bishops and other high-ranking officials in the Catholic Church.
Only the Pope can appoint or defrock a bishop.
Australia has faced a reckoning on the issue of child sex abuse in recent years, after a landmark national inquiry in 2017 found many institutions including the Catholic Church had failed victims.
