Update: For the sake of honesty, Fr Smuts has published his more critical position concerning Archbishop Hepworth on Archbishop John Hepworth the Martyr?

Lacking first-hand information, I cannot commit myself to a position other than saying that he is no longer Primate of the TAC or Bishop Ordinary of the ACCA and that the Patrimony of the Primate (my own former canonical title) no longer exists. It appears that the former Primate is accused of many things, and his alleged sexual aggressor has not yet been found guilty of infringing a law by the proper penal and civil legal authority in his country. I await that outcome.

That is why I do not want discussion on this blog. I merely informed my readers that I had updated my historical archive.

I will say no more. In the absence of first-hand information, I can neither defend him as a “martyr” or condemn him as a “madman” and / or a “charlatan”. That is all.

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I have updated the TAC Archive , in its September 2012 page with material recently published in the Australian press concerning Archbishop Hepworth.

An undisclosed Roman Catholic person sent me this reflection:

Well, I think +John’s going to the Catholic authorities is what salvaged the little we have for TAC folks going into the Catholic Church. Without John Hepworth’s finding an ally in Cardinal Pell for pursuing the sexual abuse allegations and the findings of the Melbourne independent commission, which brought Archbishop Hart onside, the TAC would have remained entirely discredited as an organization led by a charlatan who would go so far as to make up sex abuse allegations, because that’s what the Adelaide diocese was spreading around with the help of megaphones like NNN. The destruction of his reputation went into full force after the AC came out and that’s when the TAC was effectively barred from any meaningful participation in implementation and Hepworth was out of the loop.

He has fought a bloody battle not only to regain his reputation which was in shreds but to get justice for those of us still standing. Thus we do have a TAC ordinary in Australia and a supportive bishops’ conference (…). I hope this all comes out some day.

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