An investigation by The Age has exposed how some of the Catholic church’s worst paedophile priests shared victims, passed on details of vulnerable children, and worked together to conceal their crimes as part of informal networks of abuse. At the centre of a number of these clusters was Corpus Christi, where Mr Conway and psychiatrist Dr Eric Seal were the mental health gatekeepers. Mr Conway was largely responsible for formulating screening practices that led to many unsuitable candidates entering Corpus Christi training college and eventually becoming priests. One candidate told the royal commission he was classified as fit for the priesthood in 1993 after being asked to sort a series of coloured cards and look at ink blots during a testing session that lasted only 90 minutes. Mr Conway and Dr Seal, now both deceased, also provided treatment to priests and religious brothers caught committing acts of abuse between the late 1950s and the early 2000s. Among their clients were notorious paedophiles Gerald Ridsdale, Paul David Ryan, and David Daniel. So too was Paul Pavlou, who Mr Conway assessed in 2001 as a “better than average” candidate for the priesthood. Two years later, Pavlou began sexually assaulting young boys. Paul Pavlou, a "better than average" prospect for a priest. In a 1987 assessment, the psychologist referred to Father Daniel Hourigan’s abuse of a child as a “seduction” that represented only an “unfortunate lapse” in behaviour more than a decade in the past.

“There seems to be no evidence that he has misbehaved himself in recent times, and I am inclined to accept his assurances at face value,” Mr Conway wrote in a file note tabled in the royal commission. The church ultimately paid out at least seven of Hourigan's victims for offending over 32 years, and he was criminally charged with abusing one boy and accused by three others. He died before charges could get to court. Mr Conway’s dismissal of the seriousness of clerical offending in his professional work for the church was mirrored in public pronouncements about the abuse scandal as it gained attention in the 1990s. “The overwhelming majority of one-off adult/child sex encounters usually do little lasting harm,” he wrote in The Age in 1993.

Over the years, Mr Conway also stridently defended the archdiocese and its vetting of priests, claiming that effective psychological screening processes had been in place since 1970. Mr Conway was regarded as a respected Catholic thinker and social commentator, authoring a number of well-known books on Australian culture and society, as well as regularly contributing pieces to The Age, The Australian and ABC on addiction, sexuality and gender issues. His supporters included former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who briefly trained for the priesthood in NSW. Mr Abbott told Parliament in a tribute to Mr Conway when he died in 2009: "His particular gift was to help young men to understand that masculine love did not mean they would become sooks. He was indeed a prophet and he should be honoured in his own country.” Former Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, also honoured Mr Conway in a eulogy. This shouldn't have happened, but given it has then we should do it properly in his bedroom. A man's account of what Ronald Conway said to him during an unwanted sexual advance.

The Age has confirmed that some of Mr Conway’s former patients accused him of abusing his position by forming sexual relationships with them in the 1960s and 70s, reporting their experiences to research and survivor advocacy group Broken Rites. One male victim who spoke to The Age said the therapist had advised him to take LSD to help him come to terms with being gay. At the time LSD was considered to have therapeutic uses. The patient went for treatment firstly at the Newhaven private hospital and then at Conway’s Canterbury home. It was there on a plastic-covered couch in a room lined with hieroglyphic wallpaper that Mr Conway made his advances. "He came towards me and I was so surprised that we ended up sliding off the plastic and onto the floor. He said, 'This shouldn't have happened, but given it has then we should do it properly in his bedroom'. I was shocked," the man said. Loading The Melbourne Archdiocese did not comment on whether officials were aware of any complaints of sexual misconduct by Mr Conway while he was working for the church.

An Age snapshot of 34 Corpus Christi graduates who were accused or convicted of committing acts of child abuse, and for whom reliable records exist, found that 17 priests had offended within three years of being ordained. Four began offending even before they were ordained. Melbourne Archdiocese spokesman Shane Healy said that while seminary training had “not always been consistent” in the past, “the inadequate standards of the past are not the reality today.” Loading “The Dioceses of Victoria and Tasmania have insisted for many years that every seminarian who enters into seminary formation undertake a thorough psychological assessment administered by a registered independent clinician.” “Today, Corpus Christi College forms future priests in a professional environment that includes human, spiritual, academic, pastoral and missionary formation,” he said.