AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Helen Davidson
@heldavidson
Wednesday 18 March 2015
The Archbishop of Adelaide, charged on Tuesday over the alleged cover up of child sexual abuse by a fellow priest, has stepped down from his role in a supervisory group that deals with the royal commission.
Victims’ advocates have welcomed the charge, but labelled the church’s response to it “arrogant.”
NSW police charged the archbishop, Philip Wilson, and issued a court attendance notice over allegations he concealed knowledge about child sexual abuse committed by a fellow priest, Jim Fletcher, in the 1970s, when the pair worked together in the Hunter region.
He is the highest-ranking church official in the world to be charged with such a crime. Wilson denies any wrongdoing and released a statement saying he would defend the charge.
Nicky Davis, head of the international advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said that for survivors of abuse the news was “as big as the announcement of the royal commission”.
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