Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called on the Pope to sack disgraced Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson, who was found guilty of failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse within the Catholic church.
Despite being found guilty almost two months ago and in the face of heated demands from Prime Minister Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten, among others, Wilson has thus far refused to resign his position as Archbishop of Adelaide.
Prime Minister Turnbull has declared that it is time for Pope Francis to step in and eject Wilson from office, The Australian reports.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called on the Pope to sack disgraced Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson, who was found guilty of failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse within the Catholic church
Despite being found guilty almost two months ago and in the face of heated demands from Prime Minister Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten, among others, Wilson (pictured) has thus far refused to resign his position as Archbishop of Adelaide
Prime Minister Turnbull has called on Pope Francis (pictured) to step in and intervene, saying that ‘the time has come now for the ultimate authority in the church to take action and sack him’
‘I will be discussing a range of issues with the bishops today. As far as Philip Wilson is concerned, he should have resigned, he should have resigned,’ Prime Minister Turnbull said.
‘And the time has come for the Pope to sack him. There are many leaders that have called on him to resign, it is clear that he should resign, and I think the time has come now for the ultimate authority in the church to take action and sack him.’
Wilson was found guilty in May of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by paedophile priest James Fletcher in the New South Wales Hunter region during the 1970s.
The Adelaide Archbishop has said that he will appeal his conviction and that he would resign if that appeal failed.
Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said that while senior church figures had privately advised Wilson on the right course of action, ‘only the Pope can compel a bishop to resign’.
Wilson is the most senior Catholic official in the world to be convicted of masking a paedophile’s crimes.
The 67-year-old was given a 12-month sentence in in June, with a non-parole period of six months which is likely to be spent in home detention.
Wilson’s defence barrister Ian Temby QC told a sentencing hearing last month that imprisonment is likely to worsen his client’s many chronic illnesses and may put him at risk of assault from fellow inmates.
Wilson was found guilty in May of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by paedophile priest James Fletcher in the New South Wales Hunter region during the 1970s
Wilson suffers from diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and depression – conditions that would further deteriorate behind bars and ‘may even threaten his survival’, said Mr Temby.
Instead, Wilson’s legal team urged the a good behaviour bond for the offence that carries a maximum two-year jail term.
Mr Temby noted Wilson was the first Australian Catholic bishop to introduce police checks of all clergymen, a child protection council bringing in experts from outside the church and an audit system of parishes to ensure compliance.
‘The offender is not just a man… who has no prior convictions but is, in fact, a man of prior positive good character with particular reference to the general field of prevention of child sexual abuse,’ he said.
Wilson stood aside from the Adelaide archdiocese following the court’s decision in May and said if it became necessary for him to resign, he would do so.
The 67-year-old (left and right) suffers from diabetes, heart and Alzheimer’s disease and depression, and imprisonment is likely to worsen Wilson’s chronic illnesses
Victim Peter Creigh (left arriving to court for Wilson’s hearing in June) and another altar boy told the then assistant priest in 1976 that Fletcher had repeatedly abused them, but the clergyman did nothing
Peter Creigh and another altar boy told the then assistant priest in 1976 that Fletcher had repeatedly abused them, but the clergyman did nothing.
The key witness in the landmark trial said he trusted Wilson would take action after being told of the abuse which occurred when Mr Creigh was 10 years old in 1971.
Fletcher was found guilty in December 2004 of nine counts of child sexual abuse. He died in jail of a stroke in January 2006.
‘I think this will now open the doors for other jurisdictions to start looking at trying to prosecute people who deliberately looked after their institution and literally threw children to the wolves,’ another victim, Peter Gogarty, told reporters outside court last month.
Magistrate Robert Stone rejected claims by Wilson, who is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s, that he could not remember the children’s allegations.
Another abuse victim, Peter Gogarty (pictured), previously told reporters that he hoped the sentencing would help open doors to prosecute people who ‘threw children to the wolves’