Archbishop orders removal of artwork depicting a disgraced Tasmanian priest
AN artwork depicting a disgraced Tasmanian priest will be removed from Hobart’s St Mary’s Cathedral.
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AN artwork depicting a disgraced Tasmanian priest will be removed from Hobart’s St Mary’s Cathedral.
The artwork, installed in the late 1980s, includes a depiction of the late Monsignor Phillip Green, who in 2004 pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a 22-year-old man in 1977.
He received a three-month suspended jail term.
Hobart Archbishop Julian Porteous yesterday said the artwork would be removed early next week.
“I have spoken to victims of clerical sexual abuse and today ordered the removal of the artwork from public view,” Archbishop Porteous said.
“The church must do all that it can to assist the survivors and their families who have suffered so terribly from sexual abuse perpetrated by priests or religious.”
The four-panel artwork was affixed to the cathedral wall in memory of former Archbishop Guilford Young who is the central figure in the panel that also includes Green. The artwork marked the location of Archbishop Young’s burial in the cathedral grounds.
His remains were exhumed earlier this year and reinterred to the cathedral’s crypt.
Archbishop Porteous said the family of the artist who produced the work understood the situation and agreed the artwork should be removed.
In his memoir launched this week, former Catholic priest Julian Punch called for the artwork to be removed.
Yesterday he said abuse survivors had previously asked for its removal.
Mr Punch welcomed Archbishop Porteous’ decision to remove the artwork.
“It’s good that they [the church] are starting to relate to the victims in a different way but there is still a long way to go,” he said.
Mr Punch wrote in his book Green had other victims and he was also sexually assaulted by Green in the late 1960s.
Green was Tasmania’s second-most senior Catholic when he pleaded guilty to the indecent assault.
The Supreme Court heard Green groped the groin of the 22-year-old and forcefully tongue-kissed him in a car at Greens Beach.
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