Peter Hollingworth has announced he will cease practising as an Anglican priest and will hand back his permission to officiate, citing a desire to “end distress” for survivors and stop “division” in the church.
Hollingworth was last month the subject of serious misconduct findings, delivered after a protracted internal church process, which reprimanded him for his failure to remove paedophiles from the church’s ranks while Brisbane archbishop in the 1990s.
Despite the serious findings, the church’s professional standards board recommended Hollingworth be allowed to continue in his priestly duties in Victoria, saying he posed no unacceptable risk of harm.
The decision sparked widespread anger among survivors and survivors’ groups, who say it undermined the church’s credibility, was at odds with other similar decisions reached by the Anglican church, and did not properly recognise the profound harm of victims.
Hollingworth, Australia’s 23rd governor general, on Friday announced that he would voluntarily return his permission to officiate, which allowed him to continue to conduct services at his local parish and officiate marriages, funerals and baptisms.
He acknowledge his continuing presence in the church was a “cause of pain to survivors”.
“I want to end distress to them, and division within the church,” he said in a statement.
Hollingworth was found to have committed misconduct over his handling of abuse complaints against two clergy members, John Elliot and Donald Shearman, whom he allowed to remain in the church despite knowing they had sexually assaulted children.
It also found he had made unsatisfactory and insensitive comments about survivor Beth Heinrich during a 2002 episode of television program Australian Story.
In his statement on Friday, Hollingworth said he was “ill-equipped to deal with the child abuse issue” and was too defensive of the church and reliant on the advice of lawyers and insurers.
“I say that as a matter of context, not as an excuse,” he said. “I have lived with my failures every day since.”
“It is more than 20 years since allegations against me were first made. There have been five separate inquiries, including the five-year inquiry by the [professional standards board]. They have occupied countless time, energy, emotion and expense for many people.”
Hollingworth said his regrets had become “even more profound over the years” as his understanding of the impact of child sexual abuse changed.
“But I did not commit a crime. I did not cover up sexual abuse,” he said. “And I was not an abuser.”
“The [permission to officiate], commonly granted to retired priests, allowed me to conduct services at my local parish as well as marriages, funerals and baptisms. While I will no longer perform these duties, I will continue my lifelong commitment to social justice and service to the community.”
Survivors and survivors’ groups have welcomed Hollingworth’s decision, saying it was “the only reasonable thing he could have done”.
Heinrich, one of two survivors who were complainants in the Anglican process, said she had only ever wanted her matter dealt with properly and quietly.
“I feel sorry for Peter Hollingworth and the Anglican community,” she said. “He has brought it all on himself by refusing to treat me with Christian kindness. If he had, in all probability I would not even be in the country.
“I wanted my complaint handled quietly and with decorum and instead was treated with contempt.”
The Beyond Abuse chief executive, Steve Fisher, said it should have happened much earlier to save survivors the trauma of the five-year-long Anglican complaints process.
“We welcome this,” he said. “It should have happened five years ago, but he’s done it now. It’s caused so much trauma and retraumatisation to survivors, it’s the only reasonable thing he could have done.”
Blue Knot Foundation president, Dr Cathy Kezelman, said the decision was “welcome and long overdue” and that the recent findings of misconduct coupled with support for his ongoing role in the ministry caused “significant additional harm to those already harmed by the abuse they suffered under his watch, and to countless other survivors and their loved ones”.
