Search begins for a new Adelaide Archbishop after Philip Wilson’s resignation
THE belated resignation of Archbishop Philip Wilson signals the start of a hunt for a healing bishop who can inspire a shattered congregation.
THE real question might be who would want to be the next Archbishop of the Adelaide?
It is hard to see Australia’s top Catholics forming an orderly queue to lead a congregation whose trust in the Church has been so crushed. Their belief in God may have survived, but not their faith in Philip Wilson, the man closest to Him.
There is no looking away from the devastation flowing from Wilson’s conviction for failing to report child sexual abuse allegations.
He is the most senior Catholic anywhere to be convicted of the single charge that is the heart of the silent enablement that green-lit the continuation of child abuse by the Catholic clergy.
To make it worse, Wilson stayed in the job while a Greek chorus was telling him to resign. So convinced was he that he should have been found innocent – there is a rollcall of criminals passing through Adelaide courts each week who say the same – he hung on.
Now he has gone – well, almost – and the process begins of finding someone who must not just lead a congregation but heal it.
“There is a level of sadness and hurt among the lay faithful in the Archdiocese of Adelaide in the wake of Archbishop Wilson’s conviction,” Apostolic Administrator, Greg O’Kelly, told the Sunday Mail.
“As a member of this community, I have every confidence that – open to the movings of the Spirit – the new chief pastor of the Archdiocese will be the right choice to lead and care for the Church here.”
The recruitment will lack the touch of wizardry that signals the election of a Pope, although the Pope himself will make the appointment.
There will be no white smoke billowing from the chimney on top of the Sistine Chapel when a choice is made.
Expect instead a more mundane process of consultation and elimination to create a short list of three for presentation to the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, who will probably whittle it down to one who the Pope will almost certainly accept.
This delicate round of discussions is in the hands of Australia’s papal nuncio, a diplomat from the Vatican who since 2015 has been the Filipino priest Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana.
He will begin a round of talks with Archbishops and bishops, lay priests, religious sisters and brothers and leaders from all walks of Church life including health, education and social welfare.
The criteria will be rigorous.
He must be a credible leader and good communicator with public standing. He must be old enough to have authority and young enough (but no younger than 35) to be well short of the mandatory retirement age for archbishops of 75. This, incidentally, rules out Greg O’Kelly who is currently doing Wilson’s job.
He must be steeped in Church law and able to skilfully guide the Church through conflicts about celibacy, woman priests and child sex abuse which has hit the Australian Church hard.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse showed the pervasiveness of abuse and cover ups. To add to the mess, Cardinal Pell, a former Archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney and a member of the papal enclave that elected Pope Francis, is the most senior cleric in the world to be charged with sexual offences.
By way of a checklist of requirements, under Canon Law, the candidate must be an Australian priest of five years standing with outstanding faith and morals, piety, zeal for souls, wisdom prudence and human virtues. He should also hold advanced qualifications in sacred Scripture, theology or Canon Law from an institute approved by the Apostolic See.
In the case of Adelaide, he must be able to break with the ugly past and build a future that heartsick Catholics can believe in.
The process will not be quick and the shortlist of candidates will not include some of those who were on the Melbourne list of possible names before Peter Comensoli last week became Archbishop of Melbourne.
Religion specialist Noel Debien from the ABC’s Religion and Ethics unit said Archbishops from leading complex and senior diocese, such as Brisbane’s Mark Coleridge or Sydney’s Anthony Fisher would be ruled out.
“The most likely people to be considered for Adelaide, in terms of the class of people, would be the auxiliary bishops existing now in each of the large diocese,” Debien said.
“So they could take someone from Bathurst, for example, they might take someone from Broome, they could pinch somebody from Lismore. There are a lot of places that are not as big as Sydney and Melbourne.”
Without claiming any special knowledge, Debien thinks a shortlist could be headed by Bishop Bill Wright who heads the diocese of Newcastle-Maitland which before he arrived had a bitter history of failing to manage claims of child abuse committed by a paedophile teacher.
“He has already been dealing with Newcastle-Maitland which was a very difficult place to go into and he has acquitted himself very well there,” Debien said. “He has a high level of regard among the other bishops and it would be unsurprising to me if Bishop Wright was appointed Archbishop of Adelaide.”
Some bishops may be too new to their current post to move again while others might be suitable but too old.
It might also be someone completely from left field, like Parramatta Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen, a reformist who shared with the royal commission his 1981 experience as a victim of abuse by a member of the clergy.
“That would be an upward movement for Bishop Long,” Debien said. “But it would be a surprise to me because he has not been long in Parramatta and he has a level of opposition against him from conservatives who regard him as far too progressive.”
A replacement could be found by the end of the year but not necessarily because the degree of consultation about individuals could drill down as far as hospital heads, Catholic media and Catholic school principals in the form of a questionnaire.
Once a decision is made, the next Archbishop will be tapped and at that point, no is not an option. Priests can refuse the offer to become a bishop, and some do, particularly since the sex abuse crisis.
But you don’t say no to being an Archbishop.
“You are told,” Debien said. “And he will already be a bishop, so you have 45 people to choose from.”
It will be uncharted territory for whoever gets the job, just as what to do with Philip Wilson comes without a guidebook.
As Archbishop, he was resident at Archbishops House – built in 1845 and one of few surviving residential buildings on West Terrace. While not a mansion, it is a gracious, two-storey house that comes with a handful of staff including a housekeeper and a cook.
As a former Archbishop, he is no longer entitled to live there, although nothing resolute will happen until the outcome of his appeal.
If the appeal fails, he will spend a year in home detention living with his sister on the NSW Central Coast. If successful, no one is sure what comes next.
“He no longer has the right to live in Archbishop House, so that’s over,” Debien said.
It is normal for a former priest to be given a house and a stipend by his bishop, even when under cloud. In this case, it is all the more awkward because Wilson himself is the bishop.
“I think he is in unclear territory,” Debien said.
“Certainly the Adelaide Archdiocese and the Bishop’s Conference will make arrangements to make sure he is taken care of but there is no set of protocols so I can’t answer exactly what will happen to him.”