Kiefel CJ
Bell J
Gageler J
Keane J
Nettle J
Gordon J
Edelman J
22.
In cross-examination, La Greca agreed that the procession did not make a tight left turn around the Cathedral, it moved in an arc, and it was possible to look back and see congregants coming out of the Cathedral. He agreed he had seen the applicant greeting the congregants.
Rodney Dearing was an adult member of the choir in 1996. It was his evidence that, after Mass, the applicant and Portelli would generally stay at the west door. He did not purport to have a specific recall of the solemn Mass on 15 or 22 December 1996. His evidence was of the applicant's general practice. Dearing was not aware of any occasion when the applicant had departed from the practice, although he acknowledged that, once the procession left the Cathedral, he had not had the applicant "under observation". He recalled occasions when, after returning to the choir room and removing his chorister's robes, he had gone back around to the west door and said hello to the applicant. This had happened reasonably often.
Rodney Dearing's son, David, was a member of the choir in 1996. He was aged about 13 at that time. He recalled seeing the applicant stopping on the steps of the Cathedral after solemn Mass. He also recalled, on occasion, coming back through the Cathedral after he had changed out of his choir robes and seeing the applicant still on the main steps. He estimated that this would have been ten or 15 minutes after the end of Mass.
(ii) The applicant was always accompanied within the Cathedral
Portelli explained that the master of ceremonies is a church office with a long history. The duties of the master of ceremonies are set out in learned works which themselves date back some centuries. The teaching in these texts requires that an archbishop not be unaccompanied from the moment the archbishop enters a church. This evidence of Catholic church practice was unchallenged.
Portelli's duties included accompanying the applicant back to the sacristy following Sunday solemn Mass and assisting him to remove his vestments. Portelli acknowledged that it was possible that there was an occasion when he did not return to the sacristy with the applicant although he had no recall of this happening and in such a case he would have made sure that the applicant was accompanied by Potter or a priest. Portelli also pointed out that he, too, needed to change out of his robes following the Mass. Portelli was able to recall the two occasions on which he had not acted as master of ceremonies for the applicant at Sunday solemn Mass
