Child abuse
The Catholic bishops of Australia acknowledge that the “effects of sexual abuse can last a lifetime”, but they hope that “today’s custodial sentence brings some sense of peace and healing to those abused by deceased priest James Fletcher”. This is according to a statement released today by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference regarding the sentencing of the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, to 12 months detention for covering up a paedophile priest. Wilson, 64, was found guilty in May by a court in Newcastle, north of Sydney. The archbishop, vice president of the Australian Bishops’ Conference, is the highest-ranking Christian prelate in the world to be convicted of this crime. He was accused of covering up the sexual abuse of four children by priest James Fletcher in the seventies.
“It takes great courage for survivors – the bishops wrote – to come forward to tell their stories. Survivors have been vital in helping us learn the lesson of our shameful history of abuse and concealment, which was laid bare in the Royal Commission into Institutional Reponses to Child Sexual Abuse and state inquiries, including the Cunneen Inquiry”. The Australian Bishops’ Conference explains that, as a result of those reports, the Australian Church “has made substantial changes to ensure that abuse and cover-up are not part of Catholic life and that children are safe in our communities. We will continue to work with all those in the Church and beyond who are seeking to put in place strong and consistent standards of safeguarding throughout Australia, including how we respond to allegations of sexual abuse”.
