Australian Archbishop Criminally Charged With Covering Up Child Sex Abuse

By Shmarya Rosenberg
Failed Messiah
March 17, 2015

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2015/03/australian-archbishop-criminally-charged-with-covering-up-child-sex-abuse-345.html

The Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Australia, Philip Wilson, has now been charged with allegedly concealing child sex abuse by another priest during the 1970s, the Herald Sun reported.

The case has striking similarities to the coverups allegedly instituted by Chabad in both Sydney and Melbourne, and could foreshadow criminal charges that may be brought against top Chabad rabbinic and lay leaders in both cities.

Wilson, 64, allegedly failed to report child sex abuse allegedly committed by his friend, Father  Jim Fletcher, when both men were priests near Newcastle in New South Wales.

Fletcher was later convicted of raping a 13-year-old boy between 1989 and 1991 and was sentenced to prison. He died nine years ago.

But last year, a government Special Commission of Inquiry reportedly found Fletcher “had an extensive history of perpetrating child sexual abuse in the diocese, exclusively abusing young males, particularly altar boys”.
 
Wilson faces as much as two years in prison.

Wilson is reportedly known as the “Healing Bishop” for work he did in response to a series of child sex abuse scandals, and is seen within the Church as a point-man in the investigation of alleged child sex abuse by its clergy.

Wilson was also instrumental in developing the Church’s national policy manual on child sex abuse, Towards Healing.

In 2002 he headed an independent inquiry into alleged child sex abuse by Archbishop George Pell. Wilson’s investigation cleared Pell, who is now a prominent cardinal in the Vatican.

Wilson has also campaigned against child sex abuse in other ways and encouraged police to reopen a dormant investigation against a Catholic school bus driver which then uncovered widespread sexual abuse of disabled children.

But if convicted of covering up the child sex abuse committed by his late friend Father Jim Fletcher, Wilson faces as much as two years in prison.