Ballarat, Australia, Apr 4, 2016 / 23:04 pm
Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who led the Diocese of Ballarat in Australia's Victoria state from 1971 to 1997, died Monday at the age of 85. He had been accused of covering up sexual abuse of children in his diocese.
Bishop Mulkearns died April 4 at the Nazareth House Nursing Home in Ballarat after suffering colon cancer.
"Those who knew him personally will remember a man who was dedicated in his service over those years and, indeed, over the sixty years he served as a priest," Bishop Paul Bird of Ballarat stated. "At the same time, Bishop Mulkearns himself acknowledged that he had made some tragic mistakes during his time as bishop."
Bishop Mulkearns was born in 1930 in Caulfield, a suburb of Melbourne, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1956. He was consecrated a bishop in 1968 and appointed coadjutor bishop of Ballarat. He succeeded as bishop in 1971, remaining there until his resignation in 1997, at the age of 66.