The Altar Boys

by Suzanne Smith

Overview

Boys with everything to live for ... A community betrayed ... The whistle-blower priest who paid the ultimate price

**Shortlisted for the 2020 Walkley Book Award**

**Shortlisted for the 2021 NSW Premier's Community and Regional History Prize**

** Shortlisted for the 2021 Prime Minister's Award**

Glen Walsh and Steven Alward were childhood friends in their tight-knit working-class community in Newcastle, NSW. Both proud altar boys at the local Catholic church, they went on to attend the city's Catholic boys' high schools: Glen to Marist Brothers, Hamilton, and Steven to St Pius X. Both did well: Steven became a journalist; Glen a priest.

But their lives came to be burdened by secrets kept and exposed. Glen discovered that another priest was sexually abusing boys and reported the offender to police, breaking his vows to the Catholic 'brotherhood' in the process. His decision to give evidence regarding the cover-up of clerical abuse at a landmark trial ended in tragedy. Meanwhile, Steven was fighting his own battle to overcome a traumatic past, a battle that also ended in tragedy.

Ensuing investigations revealed that at least 60 men in the region had taken their own lives. What had happened, and why were so many of those men from the three Catholic high schools in the area?

By six-time Walkley Award-winning investigative reporter Suzanne Smith and shortlisted for the 2020 Walkley Book Award, The Altar Boys is the explosive expose of widespread and organised clerical abuse of children in one Australian city, and how the cover-up in the Catholic Church in Australia extended from parish priests to every echelon of the organisation. Focusing on two childhood friends, their families and community, this gripping story is backed by secret documents, diary notes and witness accounts, and details a deliberate church strategy of using psychological warfare against witnesses in key trials involving paedophile priests.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781460711491
Publisher:	ABC Books
Publication date:	08/01/2020
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	29 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Suzanne Smith is a six-time Walkley Award- and two-time Logie award-winning journalist. Her 27-year career in journalism includes senior editorial roles at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including on Foreign Correspondent, Background Briefing, Radio National, ABC News, and Radio Current Affairs. She was the senior investigative reporter and producer at Lateline on ABC TV reporting stories on the cover up of clerical abuse, which helped trigger the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia. She has also written for Crikey and The Australian, and held various roles in the commercial media. 
 

Table of Contents

Organisational Structure of the Catholic Church ix

Organisational Structure of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese: 1931- present x

Key People and Organisations xi

Preface 1

Prologue 5

Part 1

Chapter 1 The Night That Never Ends 13

Chapter 2 Early Beginnings 23

Chapter 3 Viriliter Age - Act Manfully 32

Chapter 4 The Aftermath 44

Chapter 5 The Ties That Bind 51

Chapter 6 'The De-sexto Business' 62

Part 2

Chapter 7 Operation Sentol 73

Chapter 8 'He did not want to cause trouble' 85

Chapter 9 An Unexpected Call 92

Chapter 10 The Cover-up 98

Chapter 11 The Secret Deal 106

Chapter 12 'This was my beloved son in whom I was well pleased' 112

Part 3

Chapter 13 'Father Jim isn't well at the moment and needed some time away' 123

Chapter 14 'Look at everything I have done for you' 133

Chapter 15 'I am sorry I didn't look after you' 143

Chapter 16 'The old guard rules with an iron fist' 150

Chapter 17 'You bastard! You hurt my son1 157

Chapter 18 The Whitewash 168

Chapter 19 Lies and Secrets 179

Chapter 20 Strike Force Georgiana 187

Chapter 21 'The fathers don't like that sort of thing' 194

Chapter 22 A Dream Fulfilled 208

Part 4

Chapter 23 Betrayal of Trust 215

Chapter 24 The Price for Telling the Truth 226

Chapter 25 'I regret opening my mouth. Never again' 235

Chapter 26 A Meeting with the Pope 241

Chapter 27 'I am starting to think this is what happened to my Andrew' 250

Chapter 28 The jail Visit 262

Chapter 29 The Trial 274

Chapter 30 A Tragic Death 281

Epilogue 293

Endnotes 307

Acknowledgements 325