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	Cappo's Resignation Disappoints SA Church 9 News September 16, 2011 http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8303163 Monsignor David Cappo's resignation from key mental health positions is disappointing and a "travesty" resulting from wrong accusations, Archbishop Philip Wilson says. Monsignor Cappo quit as the first chairman of the federal government's new Mental Health Commission and as deputy chair of the Australian Social Inclusion Board, amid a controversy over rape claims levelled by a former Catholic priest, John Hepworth. He rejected suggestions he and the Catholic church had handled the claims with anything other than proper and due diligence but said he was resigning because the controversy distracted from the Mental Health Commission's work. Archbishop Wilson, the Catholic archbishop of Adelaide, said on Friday the step was very disappointing. "Monsignor Cappo has a proven track record in the area of social inclusion here in South Australia and, more recently, at a national level, and he would have been an excellent person to lead the government's reform of mental health," the archbishop said in a statement. "He is totally committed and dedicated to serving the community in the best way he can, and it is a great travesty that he has been prevented from doing so because of the totally erroneous allegations made against him over the past few days." Federal Mental Health Minister Mark Butler has said Monsignor Cappo was the right person for the job, but his decision to step away was respected by the government. John Hepworth, who is now the archbishop of an Anglican breakaway group that wants to integrate with the Catholic church, alleged he was raped more than 40 years ago by three Catholic priests, including two who have since died. He trained as a Catholic priest, but later he moved to the Anglican church. Speaking under parliamentary privilege in the Senate on Tuesday, independent SA Senator Nick Xenophon defied the Catholic church and named Monsignor Ian Dempsey as the third priest involved. Monsignor Dempsey categorically denies the allegations. Senator Xenophon accused Monsignor Cappo and the Catholic Church of not acting in a timely manner on complaints first lodged by Archbishop Hepworth in 2007.
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