Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has added his voice to the multiple appeals for Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide to resign by calling on Pope Francis to sack him.
Archbishop Wilson was convicted in May of failing to report the repeated abuse of two altar boys by a paedophile priest during the 1970s. He has announced he will step aside from his responsibilities, rather than actually resign, while he appeals against his conviction. Pope Francis has appointed an apostolic administrator, Bishop Gregory O’Kelly of Port Pirie, to Adelaide.
Mr Turnbull said that Archbishop Wilson, 67, should have resigned when he was convicted. On 19 July 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.
Among those who have called on Archbishop Wilson to resign are Melbourne’s archbishop-elect Peter Comensoli, and the president of the Australian Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, who 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 a sign of the Australian government’s dissatisfaction over the situation in Adelaide, The Tablet understands that the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, Melissa Hitchman, has been asked to convey Mr Turnbull’s views to the Vatican. The embassy declined to comment.
Loading ...
