AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Jamie Walker
Associate Editor, QLD
Brisbane
ANGLICAN Primate Phillip Aspinall is bowing out as titular head of the church in Australia after nine years bookended by bitter rows over child sexual abuse.
The 54-year-old will stay on as the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, his launch pad to the primacy. Having been appointed as archbishop when Peter Hollingworth was named governor-general in 2001, Dr Aspinall confronted allegations that the Brisbane diocese had failed to act against predatory priests and teachers employed by church schools.
He launched an inquiry that made devastating findings against his predecessor, contributing to Dr Hollingworth’s downfall in vice-regal office in 2003, two years before Dr Aspinall was elected spiritual leader of Australia’s 3.9 million Anglicans.
But last November, he admitted to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he could not bring rogue or recalcitrant bishops to heel. “The powers of the primate are very limited … if people think that the primate of the Anglican Church of Australia is the CEO of Australia’s Anglicans, then nothing could be further from the truth,’’ Dr Aspinall said.
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