The Anglican church’s most senior Australian leader has called for the former Brisbane archbishop and governor general Peter Hollingworth to resign for “the good of the church”.
Hollingworth was last month found to have committed serious misconduct while archbishop in the 1990s when he failed to act to remove known paedophiles from the church.
But the church’s professional standards board said that, despite the findings, Hollingworth should not be defrocked because he posed no unacceptable risk of harm by continuing to carry out his limited priestly duties in Victoria.
On Monday, the ABC’s Australian Story reported that the head of the Anglican church in Australia, the archbishop Geoffrey Smith, had questioned “why Peter Hollingworth continues to have permission to officiate”.
“I would say on the basis of all that I’m aware of, it would be a good thing to step back and resign his orders,” Smith said. “I think that would be a reasonable thing. For the good of the people who’ve been impacted, for the good of the reputation of the church, even though that’s very much secondary.”
Hollingworth’s lawyer Bill Doogue said that Smith’s view had been expressed before the board’s findings and did not have the benefit of all the details of the complaints, the defences, and the complex issues involved.
“The Board recommended that Dr Hollingworth be reprimanded and issue more apologies,” Doogue said. “On the question of fitness to exercise his current ministry as a priest in retirement, the Board found that Dr Hollingworth was not unfit. The terms of the Professional Standards Act defines unfitness primarily as a risk of harm to anyone.”
Doogue noted that the primate has “limited national responsibilities” apart from managing disciplinary issues in his own diocese of Adelaide.
The process that culminated in last month’s findings has faced strident criticism from survivors and advocacy groups. It took more than five years, longer than the entirety of the child abuse royal commission, failed to keep survivors abreast of developments and hearing dates, and made basic errors in its judgment, including erroneously giving an abuse survivor her abuser’s surname.
Guardian Australia revealed that survivors are now pushing for an appeal and that the board was still engaged in a process to correct errors in the ruling almost two weeks after the initial ruling was first circulated.
Five leading child abuse prevention organisations have also written to the Anglican church to criticise its “inadequate” decision on Hollingworth, saying the failure to defrock him undermines the church’s credibility.
Smith told the ABC that he had received complaints about the investigative process. But he said he had no power to intervene or wield any influence over the outcome of the process, which was managed by the Melbourne diocese and Kooyoora, the church’s complaints handling body.
Hollingworth has previously acknowledged that he made mistakes and that the complaints process had been “long and painful for everyone involved”.
Last month’s decision allows Hollingworth to continue to assist with services at his local parish and facilitate weddings, funerals, baptisms and other ceremonies, including the ordination of new priests and the consecration of bishops. He returned to priestly duties after a short stint as Australia’s 23rd governor general in the early 2000s.
