Charles’s letter to disgraced governor-general Peter Hollingworth to remain redacted

The royal family wrote letters of sympathy to Peter Hollingworth after he had resigned his vice-regal role in disgrace.

Queen Elizabeth walks alongside then Australian governor-general Peter Hollingworth in Adelaide in 2002. Picture: PA

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A letter from King Charles III to disgraced governor-general Peter Hollingworth offering sympathy and prayers following his resignation over his handling of child sex abuse in the Anglican Church has had redactions maintained following internal review.

In the June 2003 letter from the then prince of Wales to Dr Hollingworth, Charles wrote that he was “dreadfully sorry” for how he had been treated, ­despite a ruling by the ­Queensland ­Supreme Court that Dr Hollingworth’s diocese had failed in its duty of care towards a student.

An Anglican Church inquiry into Dr Hollingworth’s time as archbishop of Brisbane found that he had allowed a known pedophile to remain as a serving priest and showed disregard towards complaints against clergy.

A later church inquiry found that he had been guilty of serious misconduct.

“Only recently I was talking to the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster who has, himself, suffered dreadfully from a similar kind of situation, and we were both commiserating deeply with what you have been through,” Charles wrote from the Palace of Holy­roodhouse in Scotland.

“I pray to the Good Lord that, from now on, you and your family will be able to live in the kind of peace and tranquillity which has been so long denied to you.”

The handwritten letter, revealed by The Australian in May 2024, remains redacted by the National Archives of Australia after a request for an internal review because sentences related to “personal ­affairs” and it would be ­“unreasonable” to disclose them, which runs counter to the public right to know about official records decades after they were created.

Letters from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip have also had redactions kept.

Then prince Charles’s letter to Peter Hollingworth with the redacted section. Picture: National Archives of Australia

The letters nevertheless show that the royal family rallied around Dr Hollingworth, offering praise for his achievements, saying he was the victim of media and activist campaigns that hounded him from office, and inviting him to visit with them in Britain.

“Thank you for your letter as it was really me who should have been writing to you to thank you for striving under such difficulties during your term of office ­as governor-general,” Elizabeth wrote in July 2003.

“The church here is equally going through a period of horrid media campaigning with a small group of activists and the bishops are left high and dry whatever they say.

“I do hope you will retire in the knowledge that your achievements are very important and that you became Australian of the Year – nobody can take that away!”

In July 2003, two months after Dr Hollingworth’s resignation from the vice-regal role amid scandal, Philip also wrote to offer his commiserations.

“I am sure that you have been inundated with letters of sympathy, but I would very much like to add my own personal word,” he wrote.

“Few people in this generation can have made such a significant contribution to their country than you have throughout your lifetime.”

When Dr Hollingworth reluctantly resigned as governor-­general, he angrily told the queen he was a “tall poppy” and victim of a campaign against him, saying id he would ultimately be “vindicated” over his actions.

Archbishop Geoffrey Smith, head of the Anglican Church in Australia, suggested Dr Hollingworth “resign his orders” after a new inquiry by a church tribunal found him guilty of serious misconduct while Anglican archbishop of Brisbane in April 2023.