..
The Gilded Cage
Producer: Helen
Grasswill
Researcher: Kristine Taylor
Part 1 of the interview with Dr
Peter Hollingworth is now available
Additional transcripts of the interviews with the
Governor-General will be available later this week. We
apologise for the delay but are waiting for accurate
transcriptions to be completed.
CAROLINE JONES:
Hello. I'm Caroline Jones with a special extended edition
of Australian Story. When Dr Peter Hollingworth was
appointed to the highest office in the land, no-one could
have predicted the controversy that would soon engulf the
man and the job. Three weeks ago, when we began filming
with the Governor-General, he was already under pressure
over the mishandling of a sexual abuse scandal at a
church boarding school, 11 years ago when he was Anglican
Archbishop of Brisbane. But over the weekend, further
serious allegations have been outlined on television and
in the press. It's now claimed that he was involved in
covering up other cases of sexual abuse in his diocese
and letting some perpetrators off the hook. In a moment,
you'll see our exclusive interview with Dr Hollingworth
and hear his responses to these claims. But our story
begins with the lead-up to the current crisis and an
insight into the character and background of the man at
the centre of the storm.
DEBORAH HOLLINGWORTH - daughter:
I anticipated controversy, but not for the reasons that
controversy has taken place. I remember driving to
Parliament House on the day that he was being sworn in
and I had a sick feeling in my stomach.
ABC TV NEWS, June 29 2001
Former Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane Dr Peter
Hollingworth has been sworn in as Australia's 23rd
governor-general.
DEBORAH HOLLINGWORTH:
I knew that this was a very difficult time for anybody to
be appointed Governor-General, given the unsuccessful
referendum on the republic. Given that he was appointed
by a conservative Prime Minister. Questions as to whether
there is an issue between Church and State.
29 June, 2001
I Peter John Hollingworth, do swear that I will well
and truly serve Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs
and successors, according to law, in the office of
Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.
DEBORAH HOLLINGWORTH:
But nothing in all of that really prepared any of us for
what's ensued. There have been times when I've wondered
whether being governor-general is worth it, because it's
a very terrible thing, ah, to look, to observe somebody
who you know has contributed so much to public life being
publicly vilified in a way that is so unjustified.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I felt bewildered. It surprised me, because there's been
a lot of vitriolic reaction, and Ann often says to me,
"What is it about you that some people seem to find
so difficult?" I wished I knew. And I...I...if I
could find the answer I would try and reform myself. I
really would, because it's sad and it's hurtful and I
don't mean it.
ANN HOLLINGWORTH, wife:
I felt devastated and shocked that there could be so many
negative reports, that was all in the negative, very
little positive, and so you really feel like you're
standing there just being pelted with stones.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I know this sounds a bit corny, but I think I'm fairly
ordinary, actually, and in this role, I constantly ask
myself the question, "How on earth did I end up
here?" Becoming an Archbishop, I never dreamt of the
thought of becoming a Governor-General, and it still
staggers me. I note that some people have said or written
that I campaigned for the job. Campaigned for it? I find
that unbelievable, really. I still pinch myself, and I
think to myself, "Goodness me." 50 years ago,
if I could have even countenanced the idea, I would, you
know... it would blow me away.
I didn't do very well at school, and I suppose I've
always had this sense, you know that, of being average,
so I've been a bit low on self-confidence in my ability.
But over the years I've tried to be clear about the
things that are important in life, the things that
matter, and I've tried to pursue them, and, I've had a
certain sense of 'stickability', hanging in there, and I
suppose that's me.
I don't want to sound heavy, but there's an enormous
responsibility in this role. It IS a ceremonial role, but
you're expected to do it well.
ANN HOLLINGWORTH:
Peter's a person who's really very hard on himself. He
really tortures himself about what he should and
shouldn't do, whereas I would probably say, "Well,
you do what you have to do and that's it." He always
looks very confident. I think a person his physical size,
he's not a bad looker, and these things often come
through as an arrogant person. I wouldn't say he's got an
arrogant bone in his body. High-handed - he may appear
high-handed because, ah, he's so committed to what he's
doing.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I enjoy
ritual and ceremony.
What I don't like is when it's badly done or sloppily
done. This is actually a theological issue - the forms we
adopt, the actions we take, the way we do things, are, as
it were, a sacrament. When people catch that sense of
occasion, it's inspiring to them. Ann and I were
childhood sweethearts. I was 18, she was 17. She was
small, she was pretty and she was interested in me! And
she had a great strength of leadership. The rest of it's
chemistry, I think.
ANN HOLLINGWORTH:
He was somebody who had ideas about what was wrong with
the world, how the world should be changed. And I think
at that age, he did see himself as a Robin Hood, and he
was, um, determined that he was going to do something for
society, do something for the underprivileged. I don't
know that he was quite going to rob the rich, but I think
that he was going to talk to the rich.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I went to BHP as a commercial cadet. I didn't like it
very much, and the day I turned 18 I immediately went to
the recruiting office and said, "I want to get into
national service immediately." I had thought about
the possibility of the priesthood, but I thought,
"I'm not really good enough for that, I'm not really
holy enough." But it was when I got drafted into the
padre's office without any choice, then I saw a different
model of what a priest could be - not so much the holy
man, but the man of the people, who was with the troops.
And by the time I'd finished my six months, I knew what I
had to do.
I was posted to a tough inner-city parish in north
Melbourne, floundering around, trying to teach the
mysteries of the faith to people for whom life was a big
struggle. And then, from 1964 onwards, the Brotherhood of
St Laurence was this wonderful experience that lasted 25
years, which shaped my whole life.
ABC-TV FOUR CORNERS
Ah, there's a certain inherited factor in poverty,
that people who are poor usually come from poor families.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I had a chance to work in children's work, in youth work,
with older people, with the unemployed, in research and
social action and policy formulation. And then, finally,
running the place as executive director. I think we all
have this sense of wanting to make a difference in
people's lives, and I believe, in those days, we did.
DEBORAH HOLLINGWORTH:
When they moved to Brisbane and he was appointed
Archbishop, well, quite obviously, as an Archbishop, the
Church, and his role and relationship with the Church,
totally and fundamentally changed.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
When I became Archbishop, I immediately realised, of
course, that this was a quantum leap from where I'd been
before. You've got a huge diocese and you've got to try
and cover it all, and, of course, you've got to operate
on two different, and sometimes conflicting, levels. On
the one hand, you've got to be the father in God, the
chief shepherd, the spiritual leader. On the other hand,
you're in the engine room. You can't escape the business
about administration. Some people are a natural
administrator. They actually enjoy doing it. I find it a chore.
I'm not a details person. I go for the big sweep.
DEBORAH HOLLINGWORTH:
There are a lot of things that he has to be proud of in
his work in Brisbane. He ordained the first women to
ministry in Brisbane. He established, for the first time,
a welfare focus for the diocese. He established a
development fund that enabled the diocese to get itself
back on a financial even keel, which it certainly wasn't
at the time he went there. It was an absolute... It was a
wreck. And St John's Cathedral WILL be completed.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
The thing that obviously I regret most is that we had two
serious cases of paedophilia in two schools.
December 2001
The
case involves the abuse of girls at an Anglican school in
the southern Queensland town of Toowoomba. The man
responsible, Kevin George Guy, abused the girl up to 30
times during 1990 when she was 12 and 13. Dr Peter
Hollingworth was the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane at
the time, and it's alleged he failed to act in his
position of authority. Today, he released...
HETTY JOHNSON:
There is a lot of anger coming in the meeting - a lot of
grief and a lot of anger directed toward the
then-archbishop.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
Dealing with the issue of Toowoomba Prep and the terrible
tragedies that occurred there, ah, I think I'd say that
I wasn't up to it, ah, for several reasons. One reason was that this was... I
was a new archbishop, and this kind of thing was quite
new to me. Secondly, I was trying to get a handle on all
the things that were going on in the diocese - I was on a
very steep learning curve. Thirdly, I was too far removed
from it, because, obviously, there's several steps of
delegation. You have to do that. I mean, you can't have
your finger on all of the schools. There's too many of
them. There's just too much happening. So that and the
fact that I wasn't in very good shape myself, actually.
Ah, I think it probably...it came at about the worst time
in my ministry. A few years later, I think I could have
handled it better.
I think the first year in Brisbane was probably the worst
year of our lives. Ann and I were together on our own for
the first time, rattling around this house, and thank God
for the dog.
ANN HOLLINGWORTH:
This move didn't come at a very good time for me
personally. It meant leaving my physiotherapy practice.
Particularly, I was very distressed about leaving the
children behind, although they weren't really young. The
move was also compounded by the fact that a very close
friend of mine, in fact, a friend that I was treating,
died very suddenly, and that was an enormous shock. I had
particular health problems myself. I'd had a very serious
operation on my back. I've been wearing contact lenses
for ages. I really didn't know what my life expectancy
was at the time. Ah, I was, ah, having to go back for
doctor's check-ups every three months, so that my life
was on a knife-edge too.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
She was just bereft, really. She'd lost her job, she'd
lost her children, she'd lost... She'd lost a close
friend. And I couldn't reach her. I just couldn't...
couldn't get to her. And I'm thinking to myself,
"Here am I, a trained social worker, a counsellor, I
can't help my own wife."
ANN HOLLINGWORTH:
It seems on the surface that the Toowoomba incident has
really marred the time that my husband had as archbishop
of Brisbane. And I think he felt that his episcopate had
just been wiped out overnight.
DEBORAH HOLLINGWORTH:
I first knew about what had happened in Toowoomba late
last year as the court case was wrapping up. As a lawyer,
what I found really difficult about all of that is that
the whole case had taken place and Dad had not been
called to give evidence. That hearsay evidence was
admitted without him being given an opportunity to give
his own testimony. The fact of the matter is that the
victim sued the Diocese of Brisbane. It was not Peter
Hollingworth that was sued. The judge, in her judgment,
did not single out Dad... at all. And I think if the
people that are calling for his resignation were fair
dinkum, they would also be calling for the resignation of
the entity that is responsible. That is the Diocesan
Council.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
It's
only since the court case and reading some portion of the
proceedings, that I've had any real understanding of what
happened to, well, the one girl who made her testimony to
the court. It's horrific. I had no idea of all this. I
had no idea of the level of Guy's abuse. And it's the act
of a very, very sick person who exploited a 13-year-old
girl, and that's quite inexcusable. It's a terrible
breach of trust.
December 2001
Newsreader:
Kevin
Guy was senior boarding master at the school. He
committed suicide on the day he was due to appear in
court, leaving a note saying he'd loved 20 other
schoolgirls.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I found
out about the issue of Guy's misdemeanour the day it came
before the Toowoomba Court. I knew that he had mentioned
a number of girls. I didn't know how many. There's no
evidence that 20 girl students of Toowoomba Prep were
sexually abused. One is clearly proven, and there may be
one or two or three more. I don't know. But a person who
is psychologically sick as that might well have a lot of
fantasies. I believe that the school authorities - that
is, the head and the school council - acted according to
the practices of the day.
MAN:
"..in full view of the tragic death of the senior
master Kevin Guy, whose love and great effort..."
WOMAN:
I just think that letter the headmaster wrote to the
parents is an absolute disgrace.
MAN:
It was a cover-up, plain and simple.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I didn't know anything about that letter, but my guess is
that they felt he was innocent until proven guilty. I got
back from leave a month later. At that point, there WAS
an investigation. The first thing I asked for was a
meeting with the schools officer and the chairman of the
school council. And they came to me and they gave me a
full briefing of what action had been taken specifically
in relation to dealing with those who either had been
abused or may have been abused, or may have needed
counselling. And I was satisfied with the actions that
were taken. Then the next investigation I undertook was
to ask the headmaster to come and see me. We had a long
session, I think it was probably for three hours from
memory, and we went through everything, and I was as
satisfied as I could, from the answers that he gave me,
there was nothing that I had that I should further
investigate. Looking back on it, it seems there
was a disinclination on the part of the school to believe
what the girl said about the abuse that took place, even
after Guy had taken his life. Um, that's deeply
regrettable and I'm very sorry about it, and we'd have to
say if that's what happened, it was wrong.
December 2001
Newsreader:
Today,
the Church released a statement defending him. The
statement details how the former archbishop received
legal advice urging him not to intervene and make no
public comment.
HETTY JOHNSON:
The Church, as I understand it, is founded on morality
and decency and compassion. Legal advice, at the end of
the day, is just that. It is advice, it's not a
directive.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
That's the deepest moral dilemma for me. The deepest
moral dilemma that... ..as a Christian, as a Christian
leader, I would want to do one thing. As the leader of an
institution, I'm tied into a legal contract with an
insurer that determined other things. Ah, you've got a
moral dilemma here between saying, "Well, to hell
with the insurance. We'll put all our energy behind the
victim, and if they sue us, well, so be it, we'll pay.
And if we're not insured, tough luck." Ah, I mean, I can
understand that argument, of course, and I have a lot of
sympathy with it, but the other side of it that has to be
put, is that if you've got three or four court cases that
went against you, it'll close the school.
Ever since the controversy broke, I've done a huge amount
of soul-searching. I would have loved to have been more
of a pastor to the families. I can certainly understand,
too, how some may well have a need to project some of
their feeling, their anger, their frustration, onto me,
because the perpetrator's dead and so the buck stops with
me.
If they feel that I let them down, well then I did.
Personally speaking, what have I learnt? There are times
we get blamed for things and we think, "That's not
fair, really. Why should I cop all that?" And in
that respect, I've got a lot of comfort and a lot of help
from reading the psalms, because one of the continuing
references in the penitential psalms - the psalms cries
out about, "Why am I being punished? Why have people
turned into my enemies? What have I done to deserve
this?" The cry on the cross - "My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?" I've got some... I've got
some new spiritual insights into all that now for which
I'm very thankful.
ABC TV SATURDAY
Reader:
The Governor-General is at the centre of a new sex abuse
controversy, but friends of Dr Hollingworth believe he's
the victim of a vendetta.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
It seems to be the case that every problem that anybody
can dredge up within the Diocese of Brisbane in my time
or before my time has suddenly been brought to the
surface - I think there was a headline over the weekend
in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' that said, "G-G
spares sex-abuse bishop". Now, that is a headline
grabber, isn't it? The great tragedy about this
situation is that the genesis of it was 40 years ago and
it occurred between a young priest and a teenage girl who
was under the age of consent. I believe she was more than
14. And I also understand that many years later in adult
life, their relationship resumed and it was partly a
pastoral relationship and it was partly something more.
My belief is that this was not sex abuse. There was no
suggestion of rape or anything like that. Quite the
contrary, my information is that it was, rather, the
other way around. And I don't want to say any more than
that.
NEWSREADER:
Dr
Hollingworth allowed the retired bishop to continue
occasional preaching, believing the man had exercised
"contrition in a Christian spirit".
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I mean, we're really dealing, in a church setting, with
the whole issue of confession and absolution and
amendment of life. And it goes back to the story about
Jesus finding the woman in adultery, and in that dialogue
he says, "Woman, where are your accusers? Whoever is
without sin, let them cast the first stone." And
no-one - no-one - cast the first stone and he says,
"Go and sin no more." And I think that's the
point. If I ever had a repetition of something like that,
they would be out immediately.
'SUNDAY' program : Channel 9, 17th February 2002
John Lyons:
This morning, we revealed new evidence that Dr
Hollingworth was party to cover-ups in other cases...
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I watched this program initially with a sense of horror
that they could be saying these things about me until I
started to analyse the way the whole thing had been
pieced together, I would suggest that anybody should do a
content analysis of how that whole program was put
together. It was, to me, a disgrace.
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
An investigation by 'Sunday' has found that the police child
abuse unit advised soon after Guy's death that all
parents at the school be informed that their children may
have been victims. For 11 years, Archbishop Hollingworth
resisted that advice.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I know nothing about the police child abuse unit. I
suspect they mean the SCAN team, which is the suspected
child abuse team, which was run out of the Toowoomba
hospital and consisted of a team, a multidisciplinary
team, of professionals. Now, I know they worked very
closely with the school council and the headmaster back
in early 1991, and I've had a letter that came to me
before Christmas, in 2001, by Dr Prebble, who's a highly
respected consultant paediatrician in Toowoomba. He said to me there
was nothing to investigate because no cases of abuse came
forward. We now know that there were, but at the time
none came forward and there was nothing we could
investigate. Now, I didn't know about that and I didn't
learn about it until he wrote to me just before Christmas
last year, in 2001.
(No one
came forward because the parents of the children had no
idea what had been going on since the were never informed
by the school or the Archbishop... it was all hushed
up... <JAMIE>)
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
Alec Spencer is now a successful Queensland businessman
having won Young Queenslander of the Year. It's a
remarkable achievement given his brutal childhood.
Alec Spencer:
When I was four we became voluntary wards of the State
and then we were admitted into St George's Homes. Regular
punishments included having your head flushed into
toilet, particularly when it's full of faeces.
John Lyons:
Alec Spencer, now a church leader, sat in on a
confidential meeting attended by Archbishop Hollingworth.
Alec Spencer:
I recall sentiments being made by the then-archbishop that the people
who make these complaints and these allegations, you
know, are often deviates and misfits and can't be
trusted.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I would categorically deny ever saying anything like
that. I want to say, too, that orphanage was in another
diocese in central Queensland and has long been closed.
Now, I have difficulty in saying very much more because I
understand that there is a group of residents who have
lodged a class action and that the matter is sub judice
in the sense that it's being dealt with by the Diocese of
Rockhampton.
SUNDAY
Alec Spencer:
I
did speak to the Archbishop then, privately, afterwards
and advised him that I was a victim under the care of a
father and that I wanted to talk to him about that. And
at that time he simply said that he was going on
long-service leave in three weeks time and was too busy
to see me, and basically just rebuffed me.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
The truth is I was going to the Lamberth conference of
Bishops in England and there was a huge amount of work to
be done and I simply said to him, "Alex, I’m
afraid I can't. I haven't got time to see you now. We'll
have to put it on hold until I get back from
overseas." And I never made any suggestion to him or
any implication that I wasn't prepared to see him. He
didn't get back to me and the next time I heard from him
it was all over the 'Courier Mail'.
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
One victim has told 'Sunday' that Hollingworth went as
far as to urge him not to involve police when he told how
a paedophile priest had been abusing him for four years.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I have great difficulty with this one because I don't
know who the person was. I couldn't recognise him. I
couldn't pick his voice.
SUNDAY
The year was '93. What he said to me was that these
situations are best handled internally, and that there
was no need to involve other people in this situation,
other people being police, lawyers.
John Lyons:
Now, if that allegation is true, that he was urged not to
go to the police, from your knowledge of the law, is that
an attempt to pervert the course of justice?
Stephen Roche:
From my knowledge of the law, it could well be considered
an attempt to pervert the course of justice.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I would never talk in those terms. I'm a trained social
worker. I take great care in the whole issue of
counselling. I would have said to that person, "It's
your right to do whatever you feel you should do or what
your conscience demands." I would help them to
explore all the issues and the ramifications. I would
never have discouraged someone from going to the police
if they felt there was a case and there was serious
criminal abuse. Whatever he thought I said all those
years ago, that's a construction in his mind. It would
never be what I would say.
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
After
the man told Hollingworth of the abuse, the paedophile
continued as a priest for nine more years.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
This could only refer, in my view, to the priest who was
in charge, at the time, of St George's Orphanage at
Rockhampton. He was living in retirement in my diocese.
He had had permission to officiate for many years. It's certainly true
that when that matter came to the court, I withdrew his
permission to officiate.
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
'Sunday'
has found clear evidence of Peter Hollingworth covering
up sexual abuse allegations and allowing people accused
of these crimes to remain in their positions. One father
says in a statement that when he told Hollingworth that
his boy had been sexually abused for four years from the
age of eight, that Hollingworth told him that the
offending priest was 62 and unlikely to get another job
if sacked.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I believe I know who the family was. I never met any of
the members of the family. It was a matter that was
handled by one of the other Bishops who knew them. It did
not happen when he was a priest. It happened many years
earlier when he was still a layman. I pressed him and
made further close investigations as to whether he had
done anything after he was ordained. He'd been ordained
for about 18 years.
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
The
paedophile was allowed to continue as priest although he
now faces several charges.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
Am I softer on perpetrators than on victims? Well, I have
a very deep feeling, a passionate feeling for those who
were victims. The first thing, of course, one has to do -
and I need to say this - is to establish that one
actually was a victim and that there is some kind of
evidence that can be corroborated.
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
St John's Cathedral in the heart of Brisbane is a serene
haven of splendour. In the 11 years Peter Hollingworth
was Archbishop, 35 million dollars was pumped into
refurbishing this edifice. In that same period, the
church offered one child sexual abuse victim 500 towards
counselling for his lifetime of problems.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I'm intrigued to know about this 35 million dollar
figure. We launched an appeal at the beginning of my time
for 25 million. We are not even halfway in raising that.
The church doesn't have 35 million cash that it could
use. It just doesn't. That is a throw-away line and it's
just a piece of inaccuracy. As far as providing fees for
counselling, we have done it on many occasions and we
have offered to pay for fees on many other occasions. I
think the figure of $500 is about as fictitious as the
figure of 35 million.
SUNDAY
John Lyons: '
Sunday'
has learned of a new cover-up. When he was Archbishop of
Brisbane, Hollingworth kept secret from his own sexual
abuse committee the fact that the man he'd picked as his
representative on that committee had himself been the
subject of abuse allegations. The appointment of Ross
McAuley activated horrific memories for this man, Stephen
Lacon, who says as a teenager, he was repeatedly sexually
abused by him. 20 years later, on hearing McAuley was
returning to Brisbane, Laycon contacted the church and
made a statement witnessed by a Bishop.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I never met Stephen Lacon. There wasn't, in my view, a
need to because the matter was handled by one of my other
Bishop colleagues and after extensive interview, he said,
"Really, we can't. The guy's not in a stable enough
state." At this point we couldn't possibly establish
anything one way or the other and there is no case to
answer. Now I can tell you that when I challenged Ross
McAuley with this allegation, he gave me an absolute
unconditional promise that it was not him, that he did
not do it, he had no knowledge of it. And I accepted what
he said and I believe it. There is a complaint that I
didn't tell the other members of the protocol committee.
Well, what was I supposed to tell them - that we've had
what seemed to be an unsubstantiated allegation from
someone who's in a bad way? That's not my business to
tell a group of six or seven other people. We don't cover
things up. There are some things that are profoundly
confidential that are part of the secret of the
confessional. There are other things which you would
never divulge that another human being told you as a
priest in confidence. Now, I'm sorry. If that's a
cover-up, so be it.
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
It
got worse. McAuley confessed to the second sexual abuse
complaint.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
The second complaint came from a young man who was in the
choir with whom he and McAuley had a business arrangement
in relation to information technology and
computerisation. They had set up a business together.
Obviously he did this in his spare time. There was a very
deep falling out. I could never get to the bottom of the
tangled relationship between them. But it was not
something that you could deem as sexual abuse, nor was it
inflicted upon a minor.
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
On
October 1, 1997, the committee, comprising professional
counsellors such as David Axten, wrote to Hollingworth
with a warning. Ross McAuley should not be left in charge
of vulnerable people, such as a choir.
DAVID AXTEN:
The
allegation, in general terms, was around using power or
position inappropriately for sexual advances or favours.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
I received what I found was a very difficult and a pretty
uncompromising letter, virtually saying that he was
guilty and, well, if he wasn't guilty, he needed a great
deal of help. He had problems with his sexual identity. I
think there are priests, and he would be one of them,
whose choice is to be single and to live a single
lifestyle and not to marry, and whose orientation is
probably more homosexual than heterosexual. Provided a
person's behaviour and conduct is exemplary, their sexual
orientation is absolutely irrelevant. I would object to
anybody who tries to draw a connection between
homosexuality and paedophilia. I believe that's what some
people are trying to do.
SUNDAY
John Lyons:
The child abuse scandal surrounding Peter Hollingworth is
extraordinary. It is about to become worse. Archbishop
Aspinall admitted to 'Sunday' that if allegations are
brought to him, he is prepared, as Archbishop of
Brisbane, to investigate his predecessor, the current
Governor-General of Australia.
PHILIP ASPINALL:
Insofar as he was Archbishop here, if people have
concerns about that, then, yes, I would look into them.
PETER HOLLINGWORTH:
Good. I've spoken at some length with Archbishop
Aspinall. I think he must carry out an investigation as
thoroughly as he can. I am completely happy to cooperate
with him to the fullest, Governor-General or not. If
there is one thing I do want to say, very personally - if
there are people out there who feel wronged or hurt and
badly dealt with and that happened in the time when I was
Anglican Archbishop, I do want to know about it and I do
want to do whatever I can to make amends and to help
them. With
regard to people calling for my resignation, just to be
hypothetical, if one Governor-General felt forced to
resign on an issue like that one, who in the future would
ever take on the office? Who could say there's nothing in
my past that mightn't come out unexpectedly? I suppose I
got a continuing pain in the stomach with it and
sleeplessness and all those kinds of things. But I have
another 4.5 years term to serve as Governor-General and
believe me, I intend to do just that. What people are going to have to
face is if certain persons and certain organisations wish
to keep up this campaign - I'd call it that - of
innuendo, of allegation against me, that is something I'm
going to have to live with and Anne's going to have to
live with and my family's going to have to live with. But
live with it, we will.
The Governor-General was interviewed for several hours by
Australian Story.
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