TRADITIONAL Anglican Communion leader John Hepworth has rubbished a Catholic Church inquiry that cleared Catholic priest Ian Dempsey of raping him nearly 40 years ago.
Archbishop Hepworth, who was first a Catholic and then an Anglican priest and is now the primate of the breakaway TAC, said no other victim of clerical abuse could feel safe after the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide's handling of his complaints.
"No victim in the world will be safe after this type of attack," he said. "Given that so many perpetrators of abuse were moved from diocese to diocese this process leaves the way open for findings in favour of victims in one diocese to be reconsidered by another diocese and overturned. I was told I would have to bear the costs of bringing witnesses before the inquiry, which I could not afford and I was also told that no witnesses would be indemnified. Adelaide's process, as far as we can discover, was a retrial of the Melbourne process."
Mr Hepworth had accused three priests of raping him.
The Melbourne process, conducted by the Archdiocese of Melbourne's independent commissioner, Peter O'Callaghan QC, earlier this year resolved his complaint against the late Ronald Pickering of Melbourne.
Mr Hepworth received $75,000 compensation and an apology on behalf of the archdiocese from Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart.
Mr O'Callaghan also accepted that Mr Hepworth suffered "many other instances of sexual abuse by members of the clergy in South Australia".
But barrister Michael Abbott, QC, who conducted the inquiry for the Catholic Church in Adelaide, found there was "no substance to the allegations".
South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon, who named Monsignor Dempsey in parliament, said the process used by the Catholic Church was a "whitewash that was deeply flawed and lacked credibility".
"The Adelaide Archdiocese of the Catholic Church should hang their head in shame," Senator Xenophon said. "How can this be credible when no evidence was heard from the person that made the allegations?"
The church refused to release Mr Abbott's 150-page report because of its "personal and sensitive nature".
Adelaide's Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson also refused to be interviewed, but in a statement said: "Based on the findings made in the report, and the evidence upon which it is based, I intend to accept the findings in full."
Monsignor Dempsey said that despite being cleared by the inquiry, the allegations, which had been raised in federal parliament, had taken a toll on his health.
He will remain on leave from his Adelaide parish of Brighton indefinitely.
"I'm not too sure when I might return. I'm feeling really, really devastated," Monsignor Dempsey said. "It's very difficult to get up in front of a few hundred people celebrating the eucharist and knowing in your heart that there's all these accusations against you. I've known from the beginning that it was all false but it had to be in some way stated and proved, which, thank God, Michael Abbott has done."
Archbishop Hepworth said he did not take part in the inquiry "because I was not permitted to see the terms of reference or scope of the inquiry".
He has sought to reunite his church with Rome, but was delivered a blow last week after the Catholic Church said he would only be welcomed back to the fold as a layman.