THE Archbishop of Adelaide has fiercely defended his handling of rape allegations against a priest in the face of implicit criticisms from Cardinal George Pell.
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An Adelaide priest, Ian Dempsey, yesterday went public to categorically deny the allegations aired in the Senate that he had raped a fellow priest, John Hepworth, more than 40 years ago.
The independent Senator Nick Xenophon named Monsignor Dempsey after the Church refused his demand that the parish priest be stood down while the allegations were investigated.
Archbishop Hepworth, now the world leader of the breakaway group, the Traditional Anglican Communion, has accused the Adelaide Catholic authorities of failing to act more promptly on his case after he raised it in 2007.
He told the Herald yesterday that, while he had presented a 10-page statement detailing his claims to church officials in 2008, he had signed a document authorising a full investigation in only February this year.
In a statement on Tuesday before the Senate exposé, Cardinal Pell made comments on the case which have been seen by some Catholic insiders as critical of the Adelaide archdiocese's conduct of the affair.
Yesterday the Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, said that to claim his archdiocese "has not responded properly to this allegation or has delayed or mishandled this complaint by Archbishop Hepworth is totally wrong and I completely reject that assertion as without foundation".
Archbishop Wilson said that Adelaide's Vicar-General, David Cappo, who had acted on his behalf, had held at least eight meetings with Archbishop Hepworth and had urged him to give permission to proceed with an investigation of the allegations.
"On each occasion Archbishop Hepworth declined, indicating that he was not in a proper emotional state to deal with an investigation," Archbishop Wilson said.
A church spokesman said the Brighton parish had been besieged by media yesterday.
Senator Xenophon late yesterday said Archbishop Hepworth's version of events was different to those put by Archbishop Wilson and he stood by his claims that the archdiocese had failed to respond appropriately to the complaints over four years.
