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	Church Begs Independent Senator Nick Xenophon Not to Name "Rapist" Priest Perth Now September 12, 2011 http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/national/act-on-claims-or-ill-go-public-xenophon/story-e6frg15u-1226135506880 [with video] THE Archdiocese of Adelaide is imploring Independent senator Nick Xenophon not to name and shame a practising Catholic priest, if the church doesn't stand him down today. The priest is one of three accused of raping Adelaide-based Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth (pictured above) about 50 years ago. Senator Xenophon threatened overnight to name the priest unless he is stood down by midday (CST) today. The South Australian Senator also called for the newly-appointed head of a federal mental health body, Monsignor David Cappo, to be sacked for not acting in a timely manner on complaints lodged by Archbishop Hepworth in 2007. "David Cappo and the Catholic Church should have acted years ago," Senator Xenophon said. A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Adelaide said today the Church was urging Senator Xenophon not to name the priest. "The archdiocese is writing to Senator Xenophon as a matter of urgency, imploring him not to name the priest as he referred to last night," she said. "There are many complex and sensitive issues which the senator must be made aware of as a matter of urgency." She said the letter tells the senator the church is happy to send its legal advisers to brief him as soon as possible. Archbishop Hepworth said he was "saddened" by the way the matter was being played out. "It is being played out now in a crude way and megaphone diplomacy often doesn't work, I know that from my politics," he told ABC radio. Archbishop John Hepworth has revealed that in 2007 he told the Adelaide Archdiocese, including Archbishop Philip Wilson and Vicar General and outgoing Social Inclusion Commissioner David Cappo, of repeated abuse at the hands of three men, two of whom are deceased. Archbishop Hepworth, 67, has revealed he was the victim of violent rapes at the hands of three priests beginning in 1960 when he was a 15-year-old studying to be a priest. Claims against deceased priests Ronald Pickering and John Stockdale were settled in Melbourne. But claims relating to the third priest, who still runs a parish in SA and denies the claims, are not yet resolved. Archbishop Hepworth said the processes in Adelaide and Melbourne were very different. He said he offered the report from Melbourne to Monsignor Cappo to read but that did not happen. "I actually offered for Monsignor Cappo to read the report from Melbourne in my presence, a lot of deeply personal stuff; it's a nearly a sixty-page report on all their weekends taping interviews with me and so on," he told ABC radio. "He dipped into a bit and the diocese solicitor with him said: 'well, we are going to give this to the guy you've named'.". "I said 'I can't give it to you as it stands, there is too much there. Why on Earth would you give him all this stuff'. He put it to one side and said `well, we are not going to read it'." Senator Xenophon said Monsignor Cappo had told Archbishop Hepworth this year the investigation was still at a "preliminary stage" because he had not lodged a formal complaint. The Archdiocese of Adelaide has rejected suggestions there had been no investigation, or a delayed investigation, of Archbishop Hepworth's allegations in Adelaide. That decision was only made by Archbishop Hepworth in February this year and is continuing with Michael Abbott QC retained to examine the evidence, the Church says. "Unlike the Melbourne investigation, there is an obligation on the Archdiocese of Adelaide to accord all parties concerned with natural justice and procedural fairness," it said in a statement. "The priest concerned has categorically denied the allegations and therefore all of the issues need to be examined carefully." "Mr Hepworth told these men he was repeatedly raped at various times over a 12-year period, beginning when he was 15," Senator Xenophon said last night. "But despite being told of the abuse in 2007, and receiving a detailed six-page statement in March 2008, David Cappo told John Hepworth this year that the investigation was still at, quote, 'a preliminary stage'. "It is clear that the seemingly low priority the Catholic Church in South Australia has given to this matter has caused great distress to John Hepworth." Senator Xenophon said the members of the suburban Adelaide parish had a right to be protected from the priest pending a formal investigation into the matter. "There are parents sending their children to church unaware that their priest in their parish has been named as an abuser, a rapist," Senator Xenophon said. "I am calling for the Catholic Church in SA to immediately stand down this third priest from all his duties, until these allegations are fully investigated. On Sunday, the Adelaide Archdiocese said it had not delayed an investigation into Archbishop Hepworth's claims, but had been waiting for him to formalise his complaints.
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