Wollongong bishop threatened to take Nestor case to Pope: commission, by Kate Mcilwain, Illawarra Mercury (June 25, 2014)

A former Wollongong bishop threatened to take the matter of a priest accused of child molestation all the way to the Pope, a hearing into institutional child abuse heard.

On the second day of a public hearing into how the Wollongong Catholic Diocese responded to complaints of child sexual abuse against then Father John Nestor in the 1990s, the now Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson was the first witness.

Following on from his appearance the previous day, Archbishop Wilson was questioned about events in 1997.

At that time, Mr Nestor had successfully appealed a conviction of aggravated indecent assault against a 15-year-old altar boy.

However, due to other complaints – including that Mr Nestor had watched boys showering, made boys bathe naked, conducted bodily ‘soap inspections’ and touched a boy inappropriately – Archbishop Wilson was seeking to prevent him from performing public mass until further assessments had been carried out.

After an investigation through the Church’s Towards Healing scheme, Archbishop Wilson issued a decree that Mr Nestor should not be able to practice until he submitted to an assessment from the Church’s counseling clinic Encompass Australasia.

However, the accused priest appealed to one of the Vatican’s most powerful bodies, the Congregation for the Clergy (CFC).

The CFC upheld his appeal in 2000, saying Archbishop Wilson had not complied with procedural requirements under the Church’s own canon law, and had failed to collect sworn testimony.

Archbishop Wilson said he, and those who succeeded him after he was moved to Adelaide, decided to appeal to the Church’s highest judicial authority, the Apostolic Signatura.

He said, he would then take the matter higher if this appeal failed.“I felt that since I was bound in conscience in this case, I would take the matter all the way to the Pope, in necessary,” he wrote in a letter before the commission.

“… I felt so strongly about these matters that in the unlikely event that he compelled me to restore Father Nestor to ministry, I knew that I would be unable to do so and I would, in conscience, have no option but to resign.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, Archibishop Wilson also told the commission of his repeated efforts to clarify different aspects of the Catholic Church’s law – canon law – which appeared to to be “uncertain” in regards to dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse.

He said he felt he needed to deal with the issue carefully – and through the dual measures of the Towards Healing scheme and canon law - due to the public scrutiny and strong support for Mr Nestor within his congregation.

“Because there was so much opposition in the community to the stand that I had taken against Father Nestor, I realised that if I didn’t follow the rules very carefully and have proper procedures in place, everything I did would be attacked and everything that I tried to achieve would be pushed aside because of the attitudes that these people had,” he said.