Emeritus Bishop Christopher Alan Saunders was detained in Western Australia on Wednesday evening, following a high-level internal Vatican probe that prompted child abuse detectives to act.
Police said he was charged with 14 charges of unlawful and indecent assault, as well as two counts of sexual penetration without consent, which is a legal euphemism for rape.
The 74-year-old, who is expected in court on Thursday, has also been charged with three charges of “indecently dealing with a child” aged 16 to 18 years.
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s president, Archbishop of Perth Timothy Costelloe, described the claims as “deeply distressing”.
“It is right and proper, and indeed necessary, that all such allegations be thoroughly investigated,” he added in a written statement.
Court filings suggest that Saunders’ alleged offenses occurred between 2008 and 2014.
For more than two decades, Saunders presided over the Diocese of Broome, a vast coastal territory in northwest Australia dotted with hundreds of remote Aboriginal villages.
When allegations of sexual assault first arose in local media in 2020, he resigned as bishop, but kept the honorary title of “emeritus bishop”.
An original police inquiry found insufficient evidence to arrest Saunders, who has consistently denied the allegations.
But, with continuous rumors circling around the cleric, the Vatican initiated its own investigation in 2022, utilizing broad powers originally established by Pope Francis.
The “Vos estis lux mundi” powers—which means “You are the light of the world” in Latin—were drawn up in 2019 to help the church investigate sexual abuse accusations at the highest levels.
