Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson Resigns after Conviction for Covering up Child Sexual Abuse

By Andrew Hough, Derek Pedley
The Advertiser
July 30, 2018

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-archbishop-philip-wilson-resigns-after-conviction-for-covering-up-child-sexual-abuse/news-story/6378c960f0ec47289d1f0baaa6ce4477

PHILIP Wilson will remain a bishop in the Catholic Church after finally resigning as the Archbishop of Adelaide, following a period of “discernment” and intense pressure to quit.

Wilson will return to the “ranks” and have no authority within the church but what role, if any, he has in the future is yet to be determined.

“He remains a bishop, but he’s no longer the archbishop,” the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Adelaide Bishop Greg O’Kelly said on Tuesday.

“He has made this decision out of his concern for the wider issues in the church and the hurt to victims and the division that has been occurring and he wants to do what he can to remedy that.”

Bishop O’Kelly said it was hoped Wilson’s resignation would bring to a close a “time of uncertainty and anxiety” within the Catholic community and defended the time it had taken for him to come to the decision.

“We all know the archbishop is convinced of his own innocence,” he said.

“It would take a while for anybody to come through a discernment process when you are convinced you are innocent.”

Pope Francis accepted Wilson’s resignation on Monday night after weeks of intense pressure for him to quit because of his conviction for concealing child abuse.

The state’s highest-ranking Catholic Church leader had resisted widespread calls to step down, pending the result of the appeals process, but on Monday night conceded this was causing “just too much pain and distress” so “I must end this” and resign.

“Though my resignation was not requested, I made this decision because I have become increasingly worried at the growing level of hurt that my recent conviction has caused within the community,” he said in a statement.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he welcomed the news “which belatedly recognises the many calls, including my own, for him to resign”.

“There is no more important responsibility for community and church leaders than the protection of children,” he said.

Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See, Melissa Hitchman, had lobbied Pope Francis for Wilson to be sacked. The National Council of Priests of Australia and Premier Steven Marshall had also demanded Wilson be dismissed.

Philip Wilson has quit as Adelaide Archbishop. Picture: AAP / Peter Lorimer

In May, Magistrate Robert Stone found that between 2004 and 2006, Wilson did not tell NSW police what he knew about the sexual abuse of children by his former flatmate, the now deceased paedophile priest James Fletcher, in the 1970s.

At Newcastle Local Court in June, Mr Stone sentenced Wilson to 12 months’ jail with a six-month non-parole term.

Fletcher victim Dan Feenan, 41, said “it’s about time” that Wilson quit. “I would like to thank Malcolm Turnbull and other political and community leaders in Australia for their unwavering support in calling for Wilson to resign as his position was untenable,” he said.

“This will go a long way towards the healing process for myself and I’m sure other victims of James Patrick Fletcher.”

Another Fletcher victim, Peter Gogarty, 57, said he was “pleased that people power has convinced the Archbishop to do what he should have done months ago”.

“I urge him to accept his conviction and allow people who have suffered so much to move on,” he said.

Peter Creigh, another victim who broke his long silence to reveal the abuse inflicted in the 1970s, was unwell on Monday night and unavailable for comment.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said in a statement that while the judicial process would continue, “Archbishop Wilson’s resignation is the next chapter in a heartbreaking story of people who were sexually abused at the hands of Jim Fletcher and whose lives were forever changed”.

“This decision may bring some comfort to them, despite the ongoing pain they bear,” ACBC president, Archbishop Mark Coleridge said.

He said that Wilson “has been praised by many for his work to support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse”.

Wilson, who remains on bail, had defied public calls to quit after his guilty verdict of concealing child sex abuse by Fletcher.

He is now being assessed for suitability to serve his sentence on home detention, most likely at his sister’s NSW Central Coast home. The sentence has been widely criticised. He returns to court on August 14.

The Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Adelaide Bishop Greg O'Kelly addressing the media on Tuesday. Picture: AAP/Kelly Barnes

The Vatican had refused to comment until Monday night’s announcement. In a statement, the Archdiocese of Adelaide said Wilson had written to the people of the archdiocese informing them of his resignation.

He wrote that he hoped his decision would be a “catalyst to heal pain and distress” and that it would allow everyone in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, and Fletchers’ victims, to move beyond this very difficult time.

“On July 20, I submitted to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, my resignation from the position of Archbishop of Adelaide,” Archbishop Wilson said in the letter to the priests, deacons, religious men and women, and parish and school communities.

“I have now been informed that His Holiness has accepted my resignation,” he wrote.

The current arrangements for the pastoral care of the Archdiocese remain in place in the hands of Bishop O’Kelly, until the Pope appoints a new archbishop.

“These weeks have been a very testing time for so many, from anyone who has been a victim of abuse in the Church to the Archbishop himself,” Bishop O’Kelly said.

“With the resignation, may there now be a time of healing for all concerned.

“May we not forget the good the Archbishop had done in so many ways.”