BishopAccountability.org
 
  Archbishop 'Sorry' for Not Reporting Abuse

By Dominique Herman
IOL [South Africa]
November 9, 2005

The Catholic Archbishop of Cape Town received a verbal lashing from members of the Camps Bay Catholic Church on Tuesday night for not reporting a paedophilic priest to police.

Former parish priest Patrick Thornton was convicted in September of indecently assaulting teenage boys more than a decade ago.

Archbishop Lawrence Henry said he had not told police of Thornton's confession of sexual abuse in January 2004, because he did not know he was "required to report it".

'I don't think I have done anything grossly wrong'

"It was a first for me," he said. "I'm sorry about the non-action and the slow process of the protocol. If this happens again, we will deal with these things expeditiously. I will put pressure on the protocol committee to get their act together," the Archbishop said.

One parishioner suggested that Henry, called, in turn, incompetent and ignorant, vacate his post.

Henry replied that he did not think he "should have to". This despite an earlier admission that when he was offered the job he told his superiors he did not think he was "archbishop material".

"I'm not without sin and I'm not without faults but I don't think I have done anything grossly wrong," he added.

Head of the protocol committee, Frank Whyte, told the meeting that protocol duty dictated the archbishop should have instructed the complainant to report the incident to police.

'Thornton had admitted to fondling and illicit touching'

Henry said: "I'm not trying to defend myself. I am deeply distressed and devastated by what has happened. I want to extend the hand of friendship and say 'I am sorry'.

"When it became known to me that Father Thornton had been accused of this abuse, I called him in and told him in time he would have to leave the parish."

He added that at that stage Thornton had already tendered his resignation as he was 75. Henry had accepted his resignation until he could find a replacement. By Easter, Thornton had been "removed" from the parish.

The recommendation made to him by the protocol committee was that Thornton should be "severely restricted" in his ministry.

Henry has told Thornton he could say mass privately as a concelebrant but not as a "major person". Henry added that only when the matter of the abuse entered the public domain did he fully restrict Thornton - allowing him only to say mass privately.

Henry said he had known Thornton since 1963, when he worked as his assistant for three years. He recalled that Thornton - who was the Christian Brothers College chaplain in the 1990s - had mentioned a "particular friendship" with one of the boys and that he did not want the principal to know about it.

Henry said he did not give much thought to that statement: "I didn't even think in terms of sex."

He also disputed the statement Thornton made later that Henry had counselled him after he had made that admission.

Whyte said that the committee took almost eight months to make a decision about Thornton because they could not get information from the victim and the family involved was "reluctant to be interviewed".

"It shouldn't take that length of time. I agree," Whyte said, adding that Thornton had admitted to fondling and illicit touching but not to sodomy or mutual masturbation.

In the past four to five years eight "church personnel", including priests, had come before Whyte on charges of sexual abuse. There are 110 priests in the area.

Whyte said the charges covered different degrees of abuse and that some were "just sexual harassment" - a remark that was met with guffaws from the crowd.

In future "cut and dried" cases - as one of the parishioners described it - when the accusation matched the confession, the matter would be disclosed immediately to police.

Thornton was placed under correctional supervision last month after being found guilty in the Wynberg Sexual Offences Court of indecently assaulting teenage boys as a parish priest at a Green Point church. He died after a car crash last week.