ID :
206862
Tue, 09/13/2011 - 14:18
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/206862
The shortlink copeid
Xenophon to name alleged sex offender
SYDNEY (AAP) - 13 Sept - Independent senator Nick Xenophon maintains he will defy the Catholic Church and name a priest accused of sexually abusing Adelaide-based Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth.
The South Australian senator has indicated he will name the priest in the Senate on Tuesday night unless the church, which refused his ultimatum to stand down the priest by midday, "sees sense" in the next few hours.
"If this priest is named tonight in the Senate, the Catholic Church in South Australia will only have itself to blame," Senator Xenophon told reporters in Canberra.
The archbishop has revealed he was the victim of violent rapes at the hands of two priests and a trainee priest beginning in 1960 when he was a 15-year-old boy studying to be a Catholic priest, and broke away from the church because of the 12 years of abuse.
The former Anglican and Catholic priest is now a primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) in Adelaide.
The TAC is a 1991 splinter group that is not part of the mainstream Anglican Church and is also referred to as the Anglican Catholic Church.
Senator Xenophon said the Adelaide Catholic diocese had taken too long to satisfactorily resolve the serious allegations first aired four years ago.
The Catholic Church said it was dismayed the senator planned to name the still serving SA priest with an investigation ongoing and the priest denying the claims.
"We are shocked and dismayed that Senator Xenophon has ignored our pleadings - and our offer of a full briefing - and proposes to release the name of the priest he referred to in parliament last night," it said in a statement.
"The senator has been made aware in a letter sent to him today of the many complex and highly sensitive issues regarding this matter but, it seems, has chosen to proceed regardless.
"Our legal advice was, and still is, that any decision to suspend the priest concerned would be unjustifiable as a matter of canon and civil law."
Archbishop Hepworth, 67, has reportedly said he would rather the priest be stood down than named.
Senator Xenophon rejected the claim from the Catholic Church that it was proceeding carefully with the investigation on the wishes of Archbishop Hepworth.
"That's not the case, what John tells me is quite different," he said.
Claims against the two other priests alleged to have abused Archbishop Hepworth, Ronald Pickering and John Stockdale, were settled in about 18 months in Melbourne, after they had died. But claims relating to the third priest, who still runs a parish in SA and denies the allegations, are not yet resolved.
The South Australian senator has indicated he will name the priest in the Senate on Tuesday night unless the church, which refused his ultimatum to stand down the priest by midday, "sees sense" in the next few hours.
"If this priest is named tonight in the Senate, the Catholic Church in South Australia will only have itself to blame," Senator Xenophon told reporters in Canberra.
The archbishop has revealed he was the victim of violent rapes at the hands of two priests and a trainee priest beginning in 1960 when he was a 15-year-old boy studying to be a Catholic priest, and broke away from the church because of the 12 years of abuse.
The former Anglican and Catholic priest is now a primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) in Adelaide.
The TAC is a 1991 splinter group that is not part of the mainstream Anglican Church and is also referred to as the Anglican Catholic Church.
Senator Xenophon said the Adelaide Catholic diocese had taken too long to satisfactorily resolve the serious allegations first aired four years ago.
The Catholic Church said it was dismayed the senator planned to name the still serving SA priest with an investigation ongoing and the priest denying the claims.
"We are shocked and dismayed that Senator Xenophon has ignored our pleadings - and our offer of a full briefing - and proposes to release the name of the priest he referred to in parliament last night," it said in a statement.
"The senator has been made aware in a letter sent to him today of the many complex and highly sensitive issues regarding this matter but, it seems, has chosen to proceed regardless.
"Our legal advice was, and still is, that any decision to suspend the priest concerned would be unjustifiable as a matter of canon and civil law."
Archbishop Hepworth, 67, has reportedly said he would rather the priest be stood down than named.
Senator Xenophon rejected the claim from the Catholic Church that it was proceeding carefully with the investigation on the wishes of Archbishop Hepworth.
"That's not the case, what John tells me is quite different," he said.
Claims against the two other priests alleged to have abused Archbishop Hepworth, Ronald Pickering and John Stockdale, were settled in about 18 months in Melbourne, after they had died. But claims relating to the third priest, who still runs a parish in SA and denies the allegations, are not yet resolved.
