But he defended the church's decision to let police take the lead in the case as a necessary guarantee.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Bishops Conference, said he hoped the church could soon reopen its own in-house legal procedures against former Broome bishop Christopher Alan Saunders now that he has been sentenced criminally.
"We still have to respect the integrity of the Australian justice system," Archbishop Costelloe told The Associated Press.
"That's been probably the fundamental reason why it's stretched out as long as it has."
Saunders, 76, was found guilty of 13 sex offences following a jury trial in the West Australian District Court on Wednesday.
Prosecutors alleged Saunders lured young Indigenous men to his church-owned house with alcohol and cigarettes paid for with church funds. He denied wrongdoing.
It isn't known yet if he will appeal.
Church and law enforcement officials first learned of the allegations in 2018, and the Vatican in 2021 forced Saunders to retire at age 71, four years early. But the Australian police investigation was twice halted for lack of evidence.
The Vatican typically allows criminal investigations to play out before initiating canonical trials so as not to interfere, and that is especially so now in Australia, after the church's wretched legacy of abuse and cover-up.
"I understand that some people are very, I'd say, even cynical about this and wonder about the response of the church," Archbishop Costelloe said.
"It hasn't been held up in a kind of an obstructionist way. We've had no choice but to allow the police to act independently and without interference."
The Vatican began its own investigation into Saunders in 2022, then handed WA Police a 200-page report on its findings the following year. Police reopened the criminal investigation and finally charged Saunders in 2024.
While the report's contents were never officially made public, they were leaked to Seven Network, which reported Saunders likely sexually assaulted four Indigenous youths and potentially groomed another 67 Indigenous youths and men.
"I think people who are ready to think this through understand that in order to safeguard the integrity of the process and make sure that the church didn't or wasn't seen to be compromising the integrity of that process, we needed to step back," Archbishop Costelloe said.
"So I'm very conscious of how long it's taken, how distressing it's been, but I believe that in this particularly complex case, this was the right approach to take," he said.
Archbishop Costelloe denied the delay was due to the fact the original allegations involved men who were over age 18 when the alleged abuse occurred.
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