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The Catholic Church in Adelaide denies it delayed investigating allegations of rape and sex abuse by a Traditional Anglican Communion Archbishop, John Hepworth.
Over the weekend, the Australian revealed that Fr John Hepworth fled the Catholic priesthood in 1972 after enduring sexual abuse from two priests and a fellow seminarian for twelve years.
After leaving, Hepworth went to Britain and drove trucks for Boots chemists.
He became an Anglican and was ordained priest, rising to be World primate of the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion.
Archbishop Hepworth, keen to be reconciled with the Holy See, is upset at the amount of time it is taking the Adelaide diocese to investigate his allegations, which he says he lodged in 2008.
In reply, the diocese said in a statement. “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.”
“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.”
“The Archdiocese of Adelaide is not critical of why it has taken so long for Archbishop Hepworth to make up his mind about these matters. However, it is wrong to suggest that any delay has been other than at the request of Archbishop Hepworth himself.”
Hepworth told the Australian that two of his abusers are dead, but the other is a senior Catholic priest running a parish in South Australia.
Contacted by The Weekend Australian, the priest he could not discuss confidential matters.
In its statement the diocese says the investigation revealed it has retained Michael Abbott QC to examine the evidence, the priest involved in the complaint categorically denies the allegations.
The statement says the investigation is in its final stages.
Hepworth is the bishop for the Traditional Anglican Communion, a 400,000 member Anglican breakaway group seeking reconciliation with the Vatican.
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