Cappo Refused to Put Claim to Rome, The Australian, September 17, 2011

Cappo "Refused" to Put Claim to Rome

The Australian
September 17, 2011

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/cappo-refused-to-put-claim-to-rome/story-fn59niix-1226139354343

David Cappo is accused of failing to act on rape claims made by Archbishop John Hepworth in 2007. Source: AdelaideNow

A VERSION of meetings between David Cappo and John Hepworth has been released by a third party to cast new light on clerical rape claims.

Cheryl Woodman, the chairwoman of the professional standards board of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, attended the meetings and disputed several claims made by the Adelaide archdiocese in its defence of accusations by independent senator Nick Xenophon.

Senator Xenophon said that as vicar-general of the archdiocese, Monsignor Cappo had failed to act on allegations made in 2007 by Archbishop Hepworth that he was raped by a Catholic priest 40 years ago. Archbishop Hepworth also alleged he had been sexually assaulted by priests John Stockdale and Ronald Pickering, now dead, while he was a seminarian.

Senator Xenophon used parliamentary privilege this week to name Ian Dempsey as the alleged rapist. Monsignor Dempsey, from the Brighton parish in Adelaide, has strongly denied the claims.

Contrary to claims by the archdiocese that Archbishop Hepworth had not lodged a formal complaint until this year, Ms Woodman's statement said that in November 2008 he had formally requested Archbishop Philip Wilson to take his case to Rome.

"In early 2009 Archbishop Hepworth requested details of the outcome and was told by Monsignor Cappo, 'We don't write letters like that'," the statement said.

Ms Woodman said that "in the search for justice" she had sought a meeting with Cardinal George Pell that took place in April last year: "The immediate outcome was a referral to the process of the archdiocese of Melbourne.

"The Melbourne process was completed in August this year in a timely, professional, pastoral manner. The 50-page report found that abuse occurred in South Australia."

However, a South Australian Catholic Communications spokeswoman said yesterday: "The archdiocese refutes this version of events and stands by its previous statement, which clearly explains that Archbishop Hepworth did not give permission for an investigation to proceed until February this year."

Senator Xenophon said yesterday his office had received six complaints from other people about "process issues" in relation to the Adelaide archdiocese's handling of abuse allegations.

Monsignor Cappo was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Archbishop Hepworth said he spoke to SA police yesterday and had given the Adelaide archdiocese until next week to adopt the Melbourne process or he would instigate a full-scale police inquiry as "a last resort".

Archbishop Wilson said Monsignor Cappo had been prevented from leading mental health reform "because of the totally erroneous allegations made against him over the past few days".