The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has added his voice to the multiple appeals that have been made to Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide to resign by calling on Pope Francis to sack him.
It is highly unusual for a national leader to make this type of call on a pope, especially in the case of a leader of Mr Turnbull’s stature.
Archbishop Wilson is the most senior Catholic cleric ever convicted for covering up child sexual abuse. In May, he was convicted of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by a paedophile priest in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s. He is appealing against his conviction and at the end of May, rather than offering his resignation, he announced he would step aside from his responsibilities and that two of his vicar-generals would manage the day-to-day affairs of the archdiocese.
On 3 June, however, the Vatican announced Pope Francis had appointed an apostolic administrator, Bishop Gregory O’Kelly of Port Pirie, to Adelaide giving him executive responsibility for the running of the archdiocese.
Mr Turnbull said two weeks ago that Archbishop Wilson, 67, should have resigned when he was convicted.
Today, however, the Prime Minister – who converted to Catholicism in 2002 – stepped up the pressure on the Vatican. He said that Wilson should not be allowed to remain an archbishop while he appealed against his conviction, and that Pope Francis should deal with the problem. “He should have resigned and the time has come for the Pope to sack him,” Mr Turnbull told reporters. “There are many leaders that have called on him to resign, it’s clear that he should resign and I think the time has come now for the ultimate authority in the church to take action and sack him.”
Among those who have called on Wilson to resign are Melbourne’s archbishop-elect Peter Comensoli, while on 5 July the President of the Australian Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, said that “although we have no authority to compel [Wilson to resign], a number of Australian bishops have offered their advice privately. Only the Pope can compel a bishop to resign.”
In Catholic theology, the bishop of a diocese is not simply a branch manager but the Vicar of Christ in his local church and for this reason they cannot simply be “fired” by the Pope. They must offer their resignations before stepping down. All bishops are, however, required to offer to resign when they reach the age of 75.
In 2014, Francis issued a rescript on the resignation of bishops which stated: “In some particular circumstances, the competent authority can consider it necessary to ask a bishop to present his resignation from pastoral office, after having made known the reasons for the request and listening carefully to the reasons, in fraternal dialogue.”
This, however, sets out in writing what many Popes have been doing for a number of years. Archbishop Wilson’s case is different to a bishop running a department in the Roman Curia, who can be dismissed more easily as that individual serves at the pleasure of the Pope.
Prime Minister Turnbull’s intervention is one of the most significant on the question of clerical sexual abuse since 2011, when then Irish Taoiseach criticised the “dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism that dominate the culture of the Vatican” in relation to the scandal.
In a sign of the Australian government's dissatisfaction over the situation in Adelaide, The Tablet understands that the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See has been asked to convey Mr Turnbull's views to the Vatican. When contacted the embassy declined to comment.
Wilson was sentenced in a Newcastle court to 12 months in detention, but remains free on bail and will return to court next month to find out whether he will serve his sentence in prison or at his sister’s house in home detention. He must serve a minimum of six months before becoming eligible for parole. He said earlier this month he would only offer his resignation to Pope Francis if his appeal fails in the New South Wales state District Court.
“I am conscious of calls for me to resign and have taken them very seriously,” he said. “However, at this time, I am entitled to exercise my legal rights and to follow the due process of law. Since that process is not yet complete, I do not intend to resign at this time.”
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