Archbishop John Hepworth takes Catholic Church to the Police
November 29, 2011 8 Comments
I’m afraid that the Archbishop is now really making a spectacle of himself. A headline: ‘John Hepworth takes sex case to police’, just says it all…
A breakaway Anglican church leader, who claims he was raped by a Catholic priest, has filed a police complaint after an internal church investigation cleared his alleged abuser.
Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Archbishop John Hepworth said earlier this year he had been raped by three priests, beginning in 1960 when he was 15.
Senator Nick Xenophon named Adelaide priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey as one of the rapists under federal parliamentary privilege, saying the Catholic church had taken too long to investigate.
Adelaide Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson said last night an independent inquiry had found there was no substance to the allegations.
The investigation included interviews with 29 witnesses, many who were present at the time the events allegedly occurred, and a large number of documents including those dating back to the relevant period.
Archbishop Hepworth declined to give evidence to the Catholic inquiry and told reporters today that he had now filed a complaint with police after seeking legal advice.
A TAC spokeswoman, Cheryl Woodman, said the Catholic investigation was flawed and had traumatised Archbishop Hepworth.
Witnesses were not allowed indemnity and Archbishop Hepworth had to pay their travel costs, preventing many from speaking out, she said.
“This whole process has been incredibly difficult,” Ms Woodman told AAP.
“I truly believe the Catholic church would be more empathic, more understanding, considering the negative publicity they’ve had and the mishandling of abuse cases.”Archbishop Hepworth, who is primate in Adelaide of the splinter TAC group, said he was an adult when allegedly raped by Monsignor Dempsey.
He said he broke away from the Catholic Church because of the abuse.
The honourable – and I say again: honourable thing- to do under the circumstances is for the Archbishop to step down as Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion and to sort out his mess! Whatever seedy things happened some forty-years-ago has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the TAC. But by doggedly pursuing what is essentially a secret (up until now), personal problem, in this his blundering, squealing, chosen, public way, he is not only damaging his own name, but bringing the credibility of the TAC as a whole into disrepute.
Quite evidently, Archbishop John Hepworth is not consulting with any of his fellow Bishops and a lone voice of support is that of an ever yapping in the background Canoness Woodman.
I implore both of you thus, publicly, to the end that sanity prevail, and that in the Name of the One we profess to serve: Step down, sort out the dreadfulness mess that you have created for yourselves, and then, go as laypeople to the Roman Catholic Church, or simply leave them (the Roman Catholics) alone. For it is that you are becoming ‘stumbling blocks’ to the faith of many, and that cannot be tolerated nor can it be condoned (Rom 14:13).
It is for a good reason that the faithful are increasingly distancing themselves from you, and yours is becoming but a disturbing solitary call.
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I fail to see how any of this public posturing aids in the fulfilment of what should be any bishop’s mission in life (or indeed any Christian’s)–the furtherance of the cause of the Gospel. It saddens me deeply.
So does it us all!
My understanding about the Archbishop and the TAC is that there have been numerous calls for him to step down as the primate. Simingly the Archbishop has turned a blind eye on this call. Is there no clause of the TAC that can deal with his stepping down? Are the TAC Bishops under any obligation of not imposing a mandatory resignation where their votes would determine the future of the Communion. I have seen the TAC in action in Africa and the rest of the World, but I am afraid to say that under this presesnt leadership, it is going down the drain. Only wise men, men of God can save the ship now from sinking.
I’m an Adelaide person (RC) who has visited Abp Hepworth’s parish, once, and followed this saga since Hepworth made it public in September. At first I was sympathetic, but now I have come to see that he is either lying, or living in a fantasy world. This latest stunt, of turning his reporting to the police into a photo op, with himself in clerical garb, is the most bizarre twist so far. He has ensured that this is the last image of the whole affair – with the implication that he is the victim, when all the evidence, other than his own testimony, tells that he has attempted to rort the system, and dragged the Adelaide Diocese and the accused priest through the mud, plus the expense of a 3 month investigation by a QC. My impression, from Adelaide, is that the initially favourable press and public reaction has also become skeptical. In the days following the Abbott report the covereages gave increasing prominence to the by-line that Hepworth’s non-participation in the commission was his own choice. I suspect that when the police decide not to pursue the matter we won’t see Hepworth announcing it in a similarly prominent photo-op. (He is the only one who will know, as it is, so far, a private complaint).
I should have mentioned that my visit to Abp Hepworth’s parish was *before* this whole affair. It was just a gesture of goodwill from an RC to the TAC.
Keep the goodwill up regardless, javaman59. We need it.
Thankyou for the reply Sandra! That’s an unexpected cheerful note in a depressing story. I will certainly keep with it.
Fr Gerald, you sound a catholic clergyman to the core, well some anyway.
How many Archbishops can you name who have stepped down amid controversy: none, when there’s a lot at stake and don’t make reference to the then archbishop Cardinal Pell who had been accused of abuse. The independant inquiry found both men spoke the truth and look at the dirty antics by someone in the church then.