Abuse Victims Blast Adelaide Archbishop

SNAP Australia
December 3, 2012

http://www.snapaustralia.org/SNAP_PressRelease_3December2012_Adelaide.html

Abuse victims blast Adelaide archbishop

He’s being investigated for concealing child sex crimes

At first, he pledged to help police but he’s reversed himself

Group wants Catholic prelate to hold open meetings to discuss the case

It also wants him to post names of all predator priests on church websites

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a footpath news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will blast the top Catholic official for refusing to cooperate with a police investigation. They will also prod him to

--hold a series of open public meetings across the archdiocese and explain his reversal and his involvement in a predator priest’s crimes, and

-- post the names, photos and whereabouts of all predator priests on his archdiocesan and parish websites, so that parents can better protect their kids and so that victims can better heal.

WHEN

Monday, 3 December at 12:30 pm

WHERE

Outside the St Francis Xavier Cathedral, 39 Wakefield Street in Adelaide

WHO

One or two members of an international support group for clergy sex abuse victims called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a US woman who is the organisation’s founder

WHY

One of Australia’s most influential Catholic prelates is refusing to cooperate with a police investigation. He is Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson who is accused of concealing child sexual crimes by at least two priests, including serial child offender Father Denis McAlinden and failing to report them to police. (McAlinden, originally from Ireland, died in 2005 and may have molested hundreds of kids.)

In May 2010, Wilson’s spokesman told The Advertiser that Wilson would welcome the "opportunity" to be involved in any police investigation. (Australia’s top Catholic official, Cardinal George Pell, has similarly pledged that bishops would cooperate with law enforcement in clergy child sex cases.)

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/archbisiop-wilson-faces-allegations-of-a-conspiracy-of-silence/story-e6frea83-1225867921444

But in recent months, two newspapers have reported that Wilson now refuses to be questioned.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/569980/three-catholic-clergy-in-spotlight-in-sex-cover-up-investigation/?cs=303

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/senior-catholic-priests-face-child-sex-cover-up-charge/story-fndo48ca-1226439245629

Wilson is the most recent past President of Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (a post currently held by Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne).

Two other church staffers the general secretary of the Australian Bishops Conference, Father Brian Lucas and retired bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone - are part of the same investigation. They HAVE been interviewed by police.

SNAP contends that if Wilson refuses to talk with police, he at least owes some answers to his flock. And if he did nothing wrong, SNAP says, Wilson shouldn’t be afraid of talking with anyone about the allegations against him. The organisation wants the archbishop to hold several open, public meetings across the archdiocese and take questions from parishioners and the public about the controversy.

SNAP also wants Wilson to post on archdiocesan and parish websites the identities, pictures, and last known whereabouts of all proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. Some 30 US bishops have taken this “bare minimum public safety step,” SNAP says.