Though Archbishop Hepworth complained to the Adelaide archdiocese of sexual abuse, the diocesan authorities claim that he did not authorise an official investigation until early this year. The Adelaide Archdiocese has provided a letter to The Advertiser that shows Archbishop Hepworth only signed a request for the investigation in February this year despite receiving a request from the archdiocese to authorise the investigation in 2009.
Under the Towards Healing process dealing with abuse claims against the clergy in the Catholic Church, a diocese cannot take action until it is authorised by the complainant. However, the Melbourne archdiocese had already begun an investigation and has offered a formal apology and a financial settlement.
Msgr. Ian Dempsey, publicly named by Senator Xenophon, has denied the charges against him in a letter written to parishoners. He claims he is innocent and that he has suffered ill-health because of the publicity. He has also written to Senator Xenophon accusing him of abusing his position as a senator in publicly accusing him.
The Senate was told last week by Senator Nick Xenophon that Archbishop Hepworth allegedly was raped more than 40 years ago by priest and former Adelaide archdiocese vicar-general Monsignor Ian Dempsey.
Senator Xenophon commenting that six months had passed since the investigation was authorised said, “Whichever way they (the archdiocese) put it they failed to treat serious allegations with the urgency they required”.
Archbishop Hepworth says that since the charges of abuse were made public by Senator Xenophon last week, “Nobody from the Church has been in touch with me…not even through a third party.”
Archbishop Hepworth has issued an ultimatum to the archdiocese to process the allegations under the same system used in Melbourne by the end of this week or he will pursue a police investigation in to his claims.
The church yesterday said it had encouraged Archbishop Hepworth to go to the police “for a significant period of time”.
While Archbishop Hepworth said he had spoken with police on Friday, he said his preference was still to have the allegations dealt with by the church.
“I just needed to tell the story of why I ran away from the church,” Archbishop Hepworth said.
Image: Adelaide Now
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