For 25 years, Peter Hollingworth, who died this week aged 91, combated poverty working with the Brotherhood of St Laurence in Melbourne, rising to lead the agency. When he became Australian of the Year in 1991, he was hailed as “Australia’s foremost spokesman for social justice.” It was a justified claim, with Hollingworth campaigning for Aboriginal welfare and against youth unemployment and famously clashing with Bob Hawke over child poverty. But Hollingworth will not be chiefly remembered for his social justice campaigns.
Hollingworth became the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane in 1989 and Governor General in 2001. But his time as Archbishop laid the seeds of his downfall, and he resigned as Governor General in 2003, as his mishandling of sexual abuse cases in the diocese came to haunt him.
“Bishop Hollingworth resigned from Vice-Regal office in 2003 after a Church Board of Inquiry found that, as Archbishop, he failed to act on knowledge of sexual abuse and allowed two clergy to remain in the Church, despite knowing they had sexually assaulted children,” Bishop Mark Short, Primate (leader) of the Anglican Church of Australia, wrote in an announcement of Hollingworth’s death. “The Board of Inquiry also found that Bishop Hollingworth had not handled a complaint from Beth Heinrich regarding the conduct of retired bishop Donald Shearman ‘fairly, reasonably or appropriately.’ In 2023, Bishop Hollingworth surrendered his permission to officiate and apologised after the Professional Standards Board of the Diocese of Melbourne found he should be reprimanded.
“In reflecting on Bishop Hollingworth’s career I am reminded both of God’s call to do justice and speak for the vulnerable, and the harm caused when as leaders of God’s church we fall short of that calling. I encourage us to pray for Bishop Hollingworth’s family and to pray for all survivors of abuse, recognising that in Jesus we have a Lord who holds us to account and a Saviour who is abundant in grace and mercy.”
Archbishop Jeremy Greaves of Brisbane rightly stated that the “Anglican Church of Southern Queensland apologises unreservedly to those who have suffered abuse, distress, isolation, and harm caused by the Church’s failure to respond with integrity and care when it was needed most.” Greaves made an emotional apology to an 86-year-old Beth Heinrich at St John’s Cathedral in March this year.
The ABC reports “In a 2002 interview with the ABC’s Australian Story, the then-governor-general suggested Ms Heinrich was the instigator: ‘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 round.’
“What went to air sparked calls for his sacking.”
Beth Heinrich was 14 years old when the grooming began and 15 years old when the sexual abuse by Shearman began.
Shearman was one pedophile priest whom Hollingworth refused to remove from the ministry. The other was John Elliot.
Hollingworth’s letter
Hollingworth’s lack of insight into the depth of offending of these ministers was revealed in the Royal Commission into the Institutional response to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016, in a letter he had earlier written to the brother of a victim survivor.
“It would not be true to say with regard to the priest concerned ·that nothing has happened in relation to what he did many years ago. He has been brought under the discipline of the church, made his confession and, under my direction, has been attending psychiatric treatment and assessment.
“At the end of the day, I made the judgment that he is now getting close to retirement and the disruption and upset that would be caused to the whole parish, as well as to him and his family, would be in nobody’s best interests. He is profoundly penitent and deeply conscious of what he has done. I can assure you that he has had to pay for the consequences of his actions, as has his dear wife.
“The issue is really whether he is likely to behave in the same way again, and I have a guarantee from him that he will avoid involvement with young children and when he does so, be there in the presence of another adult at all times.
“It is also incorrect to say that he is comfortably ensconced in his parish, because the situation there is very difficult indeed, being in the middle of a drought and a continuing rural recession.
“While appreciating your deep anger on behalf of your brother, I am bound to say that at the end of the day, the Christian rule is one of forgiveness and reconciliation. That is no easy thing to achieve in this instance and it will be my continuing task to help in the process of reconciliation in any way. that I can. This in no way exonerates him for what he has done, but is simply to say that God’s last word is one of forgiveness for those who are truly sorry for their sins and who then seek that forgiveness.”
Hollingworth at the Royal Commission
Hollingworth’s testimony to the Royal Commission was not impressive, but he had come to see his error with regard to the pedophile priests: he was questioned about a letter he wrote to John Elliot stating that “no good purpose” would be served in sacking the pedophile.
Q. What do you mean by that, “no good purpose”?
A. Well, I disagree with that now. Today, knowing everything, I would never have written it like that, and I apologise for that.
Q. And to be fair to you, you say expressly and categorically in your witness statement that the approach you took to Mr Elliot was a serious error of judgment?
A. Yes, and it was, I think I’d have to say, it was not a good purpose that would have been served for [BYB]and his family, it would have been served, and that’s- I regret that word.
Q. You’ve accepted in your written statement that, at the time, you focused overly on Mr Elliot’s needs to the exclusion of the needs of[BYB]?
A. I’m sorry to say so.
Q. And to the exclusion of the needs of his family? A. Not to the exclusion, but yes.
Q. But you didn’t get the balance right?
A. I did not, and I don’t think you could.
Q. I take it that at the time of dealing with this complaint, you gave no consideration to initiating a Diocesan Tribunal process with respect to Mr Elliot?
A. No.
Image Credit: Australian Politics.com