Australian Anglican Archbishop abused as a catholic seeks re-union with church

[jmj1984]

This is probably the most inspiring and yet also depressing story I’ve read in some time

AN Australian archbishop leading a breakaway Anglican faction that wants to reunite with Rome has revealed that he fled the Catholic priesthood after experiencing systematic sexual abuse over more than a decade.

Archbishop John Hepworth, the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a 400,000-member Anglican breakaway group seeking reconciliation with the Vatican, broke decades of silence after securing an apology from the Catholic church and an offer of $75,000 compensation.

The revelation of his private pain, known until today only to family, a few close friends and senior church leaders, adds an extraordinary personal twist to the creation of Anglican ordinariates that have opened the way for the largest mass defection to the Catholic Church since the Reformation.

Despite what he suffered over a 12-year period from 1960 at the hands of two priests and a fellow seminary student who went on to be ordained, Archbishop Hepworth said he was determined to continue his mission to bring the churches together.

“I fled in fear but I never wanted to leave,” he said of his decision to depart the church in 1974, haunted by the abuse while a seminarian and junior priest. “The church is full of sinners . . . but it is God’s gift to the human race through Jesus Christ . . . I have never lost the sense of vocation of being a priest.”

Adelaide-based Archbishop Hepworth, 67, is believed to be the most senior church figure in the world to reveal he was a victim of clerical sex abuse.

He says he was raped repeatedly. Two of his accused abusers are dead; the third, a senior Catholic priest, runs a parish in South Australia.

He reported the abuse to the Archdiocese of Adelaide more than four years ago but the church has not stood the priest down.

Contacted by The Weekend Australian yesterday, the priest laughed and said: “I can’t discuss matters that are confidential.” Asked if he had read Archbishop Hepworth’s allegations against him, he giggled and said: “Good try but I won’t say anything.”

Documents obtained by The Weekend Australian show Archbishop Hepworth’s ordeal began in 1960 when he was 15 and newly enrolled at Adelaide’s St Francis Xavier Seminary.

The matter took another twist years later when one of Archbishop Hepworth’s assailants tried to use the Seal of the Confessional to silence him, by confessing the abuse to him.

Despite the experience, Archbishop Hepworth was ordained a priest and stayed with the Catholic Church until 1972, when he fled to Britain and drove trucks for Boots chemists. He became an Anglican, and then a priest in the Anglican fold, rising to be world primate of the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion.

In an attitude of extraordinary forgiveness and atonement, his prime concern, set out in a letter to Archbishop Wilson in November 2008, was that his relationship with the Catholic Church be healed before he died.

“I do not seek retribution,” he wrote but he felt “deeply cheated of a priestly life that I have been exercising as it were by subterfuge, outside the communion of the Catholic Church”.

In contrast to Adelaide’s tardiness, the Archdiocese of Melbourne’s Independent Commissioner, Peter O’Callaghan QC, has processed and resolved Archbishop Hepworth’s complaint against one of the three priests, the late Ronald Pickering of Melbourne, in just over 12 months and left Archbishop Hepworth free to speak openly about it.

Mr O’Callaghan also accepted that Archbishop Hepworth suffered “many other instances of sexual abuse by members of the clergy in South Australia”.

Archbishop Hepworth praised the independent Melbourne process, which was set up by Cardinal George Pell when he was archbishop of Melbourne, for showing him “a care that was beyond anything I thought possible”.

In an apology to Archbishop Hepworth dated August 26, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart wrote: “We cannot change what has happened . . . You may never be rid of the memories or the hurt . . . On behalf of the Catholic Church and personally, I apologise to you and to those around you for the wrongs and hurt you have suffered at the hands of Father Ronald Pickering.”

The consultant psychiatrist’s report provided to the Melbourne Archdiocese’s Independent Commissioner for Sexual Abuse shows Pickering’s abuse was coupled with gruesome blasphemy about the Virgin Mary.

Archbishop Hepworth, who prays with the rosary daily and has a strong Marian devotion, told the psychiatrist working for the inquiry: “When I see a statue of Our Lady, that whole thing comes back and I can’t get rid of it.”

You can read the full story here

 

[Edmundus1581]

Thanks for that most informative and interesting bit of news!

Depressing, but also inspiring, indeed!

I attended Archbishop Hepworth’s (tiny) Adelaide TAC parish this year, and met him, and enjoyed the service and the meeting.

I had planned to attend the parish occasionally, as a token of support, but have failed to do so. I wish now that I had, as his rapproachment with the Catholic Church takes on even greater significance with this news.

I am surprised at the apparent tardiness of the Adelaide Diocese in handling this. Our Bishop is, I understand, committed to resolving all clerical abuse claims. I would give the diocese the benefit of any doubt, until anything is proven.

Please say a prayer for this fine man, and for the Traditional Anglican Communion

 

[ChristIsTheWay]

This is both inspiring and depressing. Depressing because of what happen to Archbishop Hepworth but inspiring in how God is healing him at the same time He is healing the breach between the Catholic Church and the traditional Anglicans.

 

[ChristIsTheWay]

Because he was a Catholic priest who left the Church, married, and served as an Anglican bishop, what would be the process of reconciling him to the Church? Could he serve as a priest in the Anglican Ordinariate?

 

[Phemie]

Because he was a Catholic priest who left the Church, married, and served as an Anglican bishop, what would be the process of reconciling him to the Church? Could he serve as a priest in the Anglican Ordinariate?

One Anglican priest I know, a former Catholic, was told point blank that he could never be ordained a priest if he returned to the fold.

 

[yinekka]

I could understand this man leaving the priesthood because he was sexually abused but I have difficulty understanding how he could leave the Church founded by Jesus Christ.

 

[ChristIsTheWay]

One Anglican priest I know, a former Catholic, was told point blank that he could never be ordained a priest if he returned to the fold.

That was my understanding, too. But he is already is a validly ordained priest. Is there any way, even if it be some kind of rare dispensation or something, that would allow him to return to the Catholic priesthood?

I could understand this man leaving the priesthood because he was sexually abused but I have difficulty understanding how he could leave the Church founded by Jesus Christ.

Sexual abuse can shatter the soul and lead one down a road that is driven not by dispassionate reasoning but raw emotion. I am not surprised he left. I am glad he is making his way back.

 

[Edmundus1581]

Because he was a Catholic priest who left the Church, married, and served as an Anglican bishop, what would be the process of reconciling him to the Church? Could he serve as a priest in the Anglican Ordinariate?

Abp Hepworth briefly addressed this in the Mass I attended. His sermon was on the next steps for the Anglican Ordinariates, including confirmation of laity and ordination of priests. He added “For me it’s more complicated - don’t even ask”

 

[jmj1984]

I could understand this man leaving the priesthood because he was sexually abused but I have difficulty understanding how he could leave the Church founded by Jesus Christ.

I am not, child abuse is one of those rare sins that ‘cries out to Heaven for Vengeance’

 

[jmj1984]

Because he was a Catholic priest who left the Church, married, and served as an Anglican bishop, what would be the process of reconciling him to the Church? Could he serve as a priest in the Anglican Ordinariate?

Any excommunications he incurred would have to be remmited or annuled, he would then have to be received into the church and probably confirm the promises he took as a priest. I suspect because of the circumstances behind his leaving and the good he is doing in coming back compassion will be shown on him, indeed I venture to say it would be cruel not to show it. But of course the decision is The Holy See’s.

 

[Bluegoat]

Well, the early Church took back priests that had embraced heresy, so I don’t see how it could be argued that it is never possible.

 

[Edmundus1581]

The Archdiocese of Adelaide has responded to allegations that it delayed handling this matter.

‘No delay’ on church abuse probe

“At the specific request of Archbishop Hepworth, the church took no steps to progress the matter until he decided he was ready to formalise his complaints,” it said.

"That decision was only made by Archbishop Hepworth in February 2011 and ever since that time the matter has progressed in an orderly way.

“If there has been any delay, therefore, it is because Archbishop Hepworth specifically chose not to deal with the matter until then.”

As I said in my first post, I believe that the Adelaide diocese is committed to handling clerical abuse claims promptly, and I would give them any benefit of the doubt.

This matter is starting to look a little bit unpleasant with Abp Hepworth making apparently contradictory remarks about his 2007 claim (ie. that it was, and also was not, a formal complaint). Let’s hope that it’s an innocent mistake by either the diocese, or Abp Hepworth.

 

[Dragonslayer]

It looks like this has now become political with a South Australian senator threatening to name the priest involved if he is not stood down by the Church by midday today.

cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=28102

 

[MartyrForJesus]

UPDATE:

au.news.yahoo.com/sa/latest/a/-/article/12128961/priest-takes-rape-claim-to-police/

A breakaway Anglican Archbishop who claims to have been raped by a Catholic priest has officially filed a complaint with South Australian police, for the incident that occurred 40 years ago.

Archbishop Hepworth alleged he had been raped by three Catholic priests, one of whom was Monsignor Ian Dempsey.

The claim was aired publicly, after it was named under parliamentary privilege by Senator Nick Xenophon who severely criticised the church over its handling of the claims.

Yesterday, the Catholic Church announced its commissioned investigation into the allegations cleared Brighton priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey of the claims.

Archbishop Hepworth told 7News he felt ‘ambushed’ and had no warning of the findings from the investigation.

“I am formally requesting the police to examine the matter,” he told reporters.

"It was never my intention to go beyond the processes of the church.

“I very much regret that I’m having to do that.”

Church finds ‘no substance’ to claims

 

[JReducation]

Because he was a Catholic priest who left the Church, married, and served as an Anglican bishop, what would be the process of reconciling him to the Church? Could he serve as a priest in the Anglican Ordinariate?

There is a conflict of interest here. This is an excommunicated Catholic priest. Who is now an Anglican bishop and wants to re-enter the Catholic Church as a priest. However, Church law is very clear. If a priest leaves without permission, he may never exercise any ministry in the Catholic Church. He is suspended and if he does not return during the time allotted or cannot return, because he has fathered children and now has parental duties, etc, he is laicized.

Father is not a validly ordained bishop. He is a laicized Roman Catholic priest. He was laicized for heresy. Now he wants to come back as a priest. The Church says, “You’re welcome to come home, but you must live as a Catholic layman.” Suddenly, we have these skeletons coming out of the closet.

It seems that he was abused. That does not seem to be in question. The diocesan bishop admits to this and apologized for it. The diocesan bishop also said that the other priest named in the allegation has been cleared.

Here is the question, would Father be pushing for a police investigation, if the bishop had said that he could come back and continue as a priest?

That’s where I see the conflict of interest. If there is a case, Father has the right to an investigation. But why is it that this comes out a few days after the Church said that he could not come back as a priest?

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:

 

[JReducation]

Not a topic for TC Forum