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	Church Tried to Help: Archbishop By Mark Metherell The Age September 15, 2011 http://www.theage.com.au/national/church-tried-to-help-archbishop-20110914-1k9qw.html THE Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has fiercely defended his handling of male rape allegations against a priest in the face of implicit criticisms from Cardinal George Pell. A senior Adelaide priest, Ian Dempsey, yesterday went public to categorically deny the allegations aired in the Senate that he had raped a fellow priest, John Hepworth, more than 40 years ago. ''I categorically deny the allegations which I note are said to relate to events that occurred some 45 years ago, and they have nothing at all to do with under-age people,'' said Monsignor Dempsey. Independent senator Nick Xenophon named Monsignor Dempsey after the church refused his demand to stand down the parish priest while the allegations were investigated. Archbishop Hepworth, now the leader of breakaway group the Traditional Anglican Communion, has accused the Adelaide Catholic authorities of failing to act promptly on his case after he raised it with them in 2007. He told The Age yesterday that while he had presented a 10-page statement detailing his claims to church officials in 2008, he had signed a document authorising a full investigation only in February this year. Archbishop Hepworth has claimed the sex abuse started when he was 15 at Adelaide's St Francis Xavier Seminary and that the abuse continued for about 12 years from 1960. He named the other two alleged abusers as the late Father John Stockdale, who was a priest in Bendigo, and who died in 1995, and a Melbourne priest, Father Roland Pickering. The Pickering case was settled by Hepworth with the Melbourne archdiocese, reportedly for $75,000. But Archbishop Hepworth, who revealed details of the alleged abuse to friends and family over the years, and the Catholic archdiocese of Adelaide are now involved in a bitter war of words over when Hepworth told the archdiocese formally that he wanted something done about his allegations against Father Dempsey. In a statement on Tuesday before the Senate expose?, Cardinal Pell made comments on Archbishop Hepworth's case that have been viewed by some Catholic insiders as critical of the Adelaide archdiocese's conduct of the affair. Cardinal Pell said: ''More information seems to be needed to explain further to the public any unusual delays in acting on this complaint and the decision not to stand aside the person who has been accused.'' Public confidence in the integrity and proper implementation of the Catholic Church's procedures in dealing with sexual abuse ''is vital in obtaining justice for complainants and all concerned'', Cardinal Pell said. Referring to Archbishop Hepworth's campaign to have his Traditional Anglican Communion accepted into Catholic ranks, Cardinal Pell said the archbishop's ''position and status are not an issue in the treatment of his complaint''. In a lengthy statement yesterday, Adelaide's Archbishop Wilson said that to claim his archdiocese ''has not responded properly to this allegation or has delayed or mishandled this complaint by Archbishop Hepworth is totally wrong and I completely reject that assertion as without foundation''. Archbishop Wilson said that Adelaide's Vicar-General, David Cappo, who had acted on his behalf, had held at least eight meetings with Archbishop Hepworth and each time had urged him to give permission to proceed with an investigation of the allegations. Archbishop Hepworth last night said he had not wanted to go to the police because a police investigation could take up to eight years. The archdiocese investigation would have been put on hold until the police probe had finished, and he did not want to wait that long.
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