The founder of a group that advocates for and supports victims of sexual assault has called for Catholic Archbishop Christopher Prowse to resign over his relocation of a priest accused of inappropriate behaviour towards children.

This week it was revealed that a former parish priest of Tumut was moved to a church retirement home in the Canberra suburb of Garran, near two schools, after being removed from his position.

NSW Police were notified but, after consultation with the Catholic Church, the priest was dealt with internally under the supervision of the NSW Ombudsman.

However Bravehearts founder Hettie Johnson said the Archbishop should step down.

“If people are running organisations the buck stops with them,” she said.

“If they haven’t learnt already, they haven’t learned by now how to keep children safe and they don’t get it … then they shouldn’t be in those roles because people’s lives at at stake — literally.”

Priest’s relocation ‘incomprehensible’

On Wednesday Archbishop Prowse, from the Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese, told ABC Radio Canberra the situation could have been handled better and the church was urgently looking for different accommodation for the former priest.

“I must say we could have done better,” he said.

Archbishop Prowse said the decision to house the man nears the schools had been carefully considered and the retired priest has no contact with the children of either of the nearby schools.

“No children are permitted to visit Lanigan House,” Archbishop Prowse said.

But Ms Johnson said the church’s decision to move the priest to a home near schools was unfathomable.

“It seems incomprehensible that after everything we’ve heard in the Royal Commission … the tragic stories … that we can still be making these same mistakes,” she said.

Bravehearts was established in 1996 to help prevent child sexual assault. Its vision is to make Australia the safest place in the world to raise a child.