THE Catholic Church's sex abuse commission, set up by then Melbourne archbishop George Pell, apologised and discretely paid thousands. The compensation money went to four victims of alleged pedophile priest Peter Chalk in the late 1990s but the commission has declined to say if it alerted authorities to his whereabouts and status.
Chalk has been living in Japan since 1995 when he left his Catholic order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, after his alleged victims went to the police after years of inaction over the allegations by some in his order.
The Australian last week found the former priest, who had changed his name to Peter Shiraishi, living in Emerald Town, a small village about 2 hours south of Tokyo, where he has been teaching at a local school.
He has never been interviewed by Australian police about the allegations and the claims against him were not known to Japanese police or locals and school authorities in the area, until now.
A spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne said last week that when Cardinal Pell was the archbishop of Melbourne he had apologised to three of the victims, who had also received compensation after their complaints were upheld by the independent commissioner into sexual abuse, Peter O'Callaghan QC.
A fourth victim also received compensation and an apology from Archbishop Denis Hart, who replaced Cardinal Pell as Archbishop of Melbourne.
The apologies and payments confirm the church has known for more than a decade about Chalk's alleged abuse.
One of the victims who received the compensation was Peter Murphy, who made the first complaints about Chalk, which the church failed to act on for nearly seven years.
Correspondence from Mr O'Callaghan to Mr Murphy confirms the abuse.
"I am satisfied (on the civil test) that you were the victim of sexual abuse by Fr Peter Chalk in the circumstances which you described to me in the interview and in the statement which you made to the police," said Mr O'Callaghan, who also offered Mr Murphy counselling and compensation.
The Melbourne archdiocese spokesman did not answer The Australian's question about whether it had alerted Japanese authorities to Chalk's activities.
The order's current head, Father Tim Brennan, has said those who were aware in the 1990s did not go to authorities because "police contact was felt to be a matter for the family and the victims", and mandatory reporting to government departments was not common.
Chalk has denied the allegations but admitted to possibly being involved in crude behaviour during his days as a parish priest and youth group leader in the Warrandyte and Park Orchids parishes in Melbourne's northern suburbs in the 1970s.
His alleged victims had complained as early as 1987 to the parish priest, Father Fred Van Gestel, who immediately raised the allegations with one of his supervisors, Father Jim Fallon, who kept the complaint quiet.
Almost nothing was done about the situation, allowing Chalk to continue working.
Last week Victorian Police confirmed there had been an investigation but declined to go into detail because it could still be active.
A spokeswoman did confirm that police had considered extraditing a Japanese resident who was a former Australian resident and person of interest to a case.
She said there were complexities which resulted in no extradition being sought but the investigation remained open.
The Australian contacted Japanese police about Chalk and the allegations last week.
Shizuoka prefecture police declined to comment, except to say the information had been logged in their system and would be distributed to local police in the Emerald Town area.
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