Australian Archbishop guilty of concealing child sex abuse

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Leave it to the Australian government to throw an old man in jail for something he allegedly didn’t do decades ago.

Letting the state (particularly a state that is openly hostile to the faith) throw bishops in jail for mishandling of their office sets an extremely dangerous precedent, as any Catholic with a brain should be able to see.
 
The Archbishop was found guilty, at trial. He may or may not go to jail.
No one is above the law.
The Australian Government is not hostile to religion. Whatever gave you that idea.

“South Australian Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson could face time behind bars after being found guilty of concealing child sex abuse by another priest.”
 
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Arkansan said:
Leave it to the Australian government to throw an old man in jail for something he allegedly didn’t do decades ago.

Letting the state (particularly a state that is openly hostile to the faith) throw bishops in jail for mishandling of their office sets an extremely dangerous precedent, as any Catholic with a brain should be able to see.
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He has not been found guilty by the executive government, either federal or state. He has been found guilty by a court. Courts in Australia are independent of government. It was not alleged he mishandling his office as bishop. It was alleged he committed a crime as an Australian citizen or resident by failing to report abuse. At the time he was a priest. All priests accused of such crimes face the problem that it is well established that the motive of avoiding scandal was ubiquitous in the Church at the time. I would like to see a transcript of the evidence in this case but I cant see that the accused was helped by arguing that he has dementia which may account for his lack of memory of the events but that he has no plans to retire from his role until he is 75 in 7 years’ time.
 
The Australian government (read “state”, I don’t care for semantics) has vigorously promoted sexual immorality and launched legal proceedings against the Church for expressing its views, and wants to force priests to violate the seal of confession. Not to mention that Catholics are still debarred from the Australian throne.
 
Arkansan said:
The Australian government (read “state”, I don’t care for semantics) has vigorously promoted sexual immorality and launched legal proceedings against the Church for expressing its views, and wants to force priests to violate the seal of confession. Not to mention that Catholics are still debarred from the Australian throne.
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You are confusing the state with a Royal Commission. The Australian state has yet to require any of its citizens to be sexually immoral. It has merely stopped the oppression of those who in your opinion are. I agree that that Catholics are disbarred from succeeding to the position of Australian head of State. This is a purely ceremonial role. Any residual real power is held by Governors-General appointed by democratically elected governments without restriction as to their faith, or lack of faith.
 
Arkansan said:
Leave it to the Australian government to throw an old man in jail for something he allegedly didn’t do decades ago.

Letting the state (particularly a state that is openly hostile to the faith) throw bishops in jail for mishandling of their office sets an extremely dangerous precedent, as any Catholic with a brain should be able to see.
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Firstly, there is no single state. In both senses of the term. Like the US we have judicial, executive and legislature. None of which were involved in the prosecution of Wilson. The judicial arm is represented by the Supreme Court which wasn’t involved - he was tried in a local court. So the state had no involvement.

Secondly, the fact that he is a Bishop was irrelevant to the case. He just happened to hold that position when he was convicted. He could have been flipping burgers at Mackers and it would have made no difference.

Thirdly, he was not charged with mishandling his office (although he undoubtedly did). He was charged with withholding details of a sexual crime from the relevant authorities. Any punishment for mishandling his office will be dealt with by the Catholic church.

Fourthly, the state and federal governments are hugely supportive of the Catholic church. It funds independent Catholic scholols to the tune of billions of dollars. The Prime Minister is actually Catholic and the opposition party is currently trying to outbid the government in how much it will increase funding to Catholic schools after the next election.

Fifthly, I do live there (and both my kids went to Catholic scbools incidentally) so I do know what I am talking about.

I didn’t know y’all down in Arkansas were so interested with the details of Australian life. Yet so ill informed.
 
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Seems like most of these cases happened a long time ago and are just being revealed. I wonder why Australia has such a big problem.
 
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I presume most of you are from Australia because it is four in the morning here.
 
You need to remember that you are required to be respectful toward non-Catholics just as they are required to be respectful of the Catholic faith. This comment is uncharitable in the extreme!
 
Tip of the iceberg mate, this is going to open the door to more prosecutions of this kind.
 
Arkansan said:
The Australian government (read “state”, I don’t care for semantics) has vigorously promoted sexual immorality and launched legal proceedings against the Church for expressing its views, and wants to force priests to violate the seal of confession. Not to mention that Catholics are still debarred from the Australian throne.
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Might be worth you getting educated on our situation and the history before you draw conclusions.
anon10271182 said:
Yes. Ignore the pagans here with an axe to grind against the Catholic Church.
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The Catholic Church, not the Pagans, have created this situation. We now have to own it and deal with the consequences.
Bradskii said:
He was charged with withholding details of a sexual crime from the relevant authorities. Any punishment for mishandling his office will be dealt with by the Catholic church.
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Exactly. And he won’t be the last.
OsculeturMeOsculo said:
Seems like most of these cases happened a long time ago and are just being revealed. I wonder why Australia has such a big problem.
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The survivors grew up and started using their voice. And to demand justice. I am sure our experience is not unique
OsculeturMeOsculo said:
I presume most of you are from Australia because it is four in the morning here.
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I am, and Bradski.
adgloriam said:
The victims deserve to see justice.
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Do the crime, do the time.
 
If you count letting people who enable pedophiles live out there day as evolved we have a very different opinion.
 
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