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	Catholic Church Considers a Report on Father John Fleming Broken Rites November 8, 2009 http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/page209-fleming.html The Adelaide Sunday Mail reported on 25 October 2009 that the Adelaide Catholic archdiocese is seeking advice from the Vatican's lawyers about how the Catholic Church should deal with allegations of sexual misconduct involving a prominent Australian priest, Father John Fleming. Father Fleming was originally a minister of the Anglican Church. The allegations concern his time in the Anglican ministry. After leaving the Anglican ministry, he was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1995. He is licensed now by the Adelaide Catholic diocese. The allegations involving Father Fleming are the subject of an Anglican Church professional standards investigation. However, the Anglican Church can take no action because it has no jurisdiction over Father Fleming as he is no longer an Anglican. In 2005 Father Fleming took up a position as the president of Campion College, a new conservative Catholic tertiary institution in western Sydney, offering a Bachelor of Arts degree. Sydney Archbishop George Pell served as patron of the capital appeal for the college in 2003, and his private secretary (Dr Michael Casey) is a member of the college's board of trustees. The college had its first intake of students in February 2006. Father Fleming was granted leave from the Adelaide diocese to take up the Campion College position and he still officially belongs to the Adelaide diocese. In a series of interviews with the Adelaide Sunday Mail in August 2008, three people (labelled as Jane, Jenny and Richard) each detailed their sexual involvement with Father Fleming while he was an Anglican priest. One of the women said that she was under-age at the time of the involvement. One of the women, Jane, lodged a complaint with the Catholic Church's Professional Standards Office in South Australia on 17 June 2002 but was dissatisfied by the outcome. So she wrote to Archbishop George Pell on 13 March 2003 and Pell replied to her on 22 May 2003, referring her back to the South Australian PSO. The other woman, Jenny, wrote to Cardinal Pell on 28 April 2004 after hearing about Father Fleming's proposed appointment to Campion College. Pell replied immediately, referring her back to the South Australian PSO and the Adelaide archdiocese. Broken Rites possesses copies of George Pell's replies to Jane and Jenny. Following the publication of the Sunday Mail articles, Father Fleming made a public statement, denying any wrong-doing. The matter is not merely about the content of the allegations (allegations which Father Fleming denies). It also involves the way the church authorities have handled such complaints. The Sunday Mail alleged that the Catholic Church leadership in Adelaide was aware of some of the sexual misconduct allegations from Father Fleming's Anglican past when Father Fleming was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1995. Despite this, the Catholic ordination went ahead. The allegations were also known to the Catholic Church leadership in Sydney when Father Fleming was appointed to Sydney’s Campion College in 2005. Despite this, Father Fleming’s appointment to Campion College went ahead. On 31 August 2008, the allegations were also published in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph. This meant that the Fleming matter became public knowledge in Sydney as well as in Adelaide. Following this publicity, the Catholic Church authorities went into damage control in both Adelaide and Sydney: * The Archbishop of Adelaide, Archbishop Philip Wilson, recalled Father Fleming from Sydney to Adelaide. * In 2009 Campion College ceased listing Rev Dr John Fleming as its president. The college then appointed another member of its staff (a classics scholar) as the college’s president. * Archbishop Wilson appointed a senior barrister, Michael Abbott, QC, to investigate and report on aspects of the Fleming matter. Mr Abbott eventually reported in 2009 that the Adelaide archdiocese has no jurisdiction to take action against Father Fleming because he was an Anglican priest at the time the incidents allegedly occurred up to 35 years ago. On 23 October 2009, Archbishop Wilson issued a written statement, saying that he had received the Abbott report. However, Wilson declined to make the report public. * Following the Abbott report, the Sunday Mail said Archbishop Wilson is seeking advice from the Vatican’s lawyers on what action he should take concerning Father Fleming. Thus, the Catholic Church authorities took significant action only after the allegations became public.
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