A third Melbourne Catholic church, St Mary’s Church in Dandenong, was set alight on Wednesday after two others, one in Brighton and one in St Kilda, were torched on Monday. 

Police are investigating the suspected arson attacks and the fact that all three have links to known and alleged sexual abuse. 

Ballarat Catholic Diocese Vicar-general Justin Driscoll said his church, St Patrick’s Cathedral in Sturt Street, was aware of the attacks in Melbourne and would monitor the situation closely. 

Father Driscoll said the church had recently upgraded its fire system, but said the new equipment was not connected to suspected arson in Melbourne. 

He said the church featured security throughout, including cameras in the cathedral and movement sensors monitored by a security firm. 

Ballarat has been at the forefront of clergy sexual abuse in the past, with several paedophile priests, including the notorious Gerald Francis Ridsdale, residing here in the past. 

Ballarat has 107 confirmed clergy sexual abuse victims.

Emergency crews were called to the most recent blaze at the Dandenong church at 2am on Wednesday.

The church was linked to Father Kevin O’Donnell, who pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting 10 boys and two girls, aged between eight and 15, for which he spent 15 months in jail.

The two churches targeted in Brighton and St Kilda were attended by notorious priest Ronald Pickering.

Pickering, now dead, was accused of child sex abuse against a number of boys in the 1970s and ’80s, but was never convicted.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Childhood Sexual Abuse will hold a public forum in Ballarat next month.

patrick.byrne@fairfaxmedia.com.au