Peter Hollingworth

Peter Hollingworth

Peter John Hollingworth AC , OBE (born April 10, 1935 in Adelaide , South Australia ) is an Australian Archbishop of the Anglican Church and former Governor General of Australia .

biography

Studied, worked as an Anglican clergyman and rose to the position of Archbishop of Brisbane

After attending state elementary schools, he obtained his secondary degree from Scotch College in Melbourne , where he had moved with his parents in 1940, and subsequently worked as a miner in the mining company BHP Billiton . He often spent his lunch break at St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral, which prompted his desire to become an Anglican priest .

After his compulsory military service in 1953 and basic training at the military airfield of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in Point Cook ( Victoria ), he became an employee in the office of the local military chaplain. This was followed in 1954 by his enrollment in the Faculty of Religion at Trinity College, Melbourne University . In 1960 he completed his studies with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a licentiate in theology .

After working as a deacon and subsequent ordination , he worked as a priest in North Melbourne. In 1964 he joined the Brotherhood of St. Laurence ( Brotherhood of St. Laurence ) in, an independent Anglican welfare organization, and was initially the chaplain and director for children and young people. He later became Director of Social Policy and Research before becoming Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St. Laurence in 1990.

In addition to these honorary offices, he was elected canon of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1980 and, five years later, ordained Bishop of Melbourne - Inner City in 1985 . Shortly before this, he earned a Master of Arts in social work and also wrote several books on working with the needy, which became recognized textbooks.

In December 1989, Hollingworth was elected Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Brisbane . In the years that followed , allegations of child abuse within the Anglican Church were made not only in his diocese of Queensland but around the world .

In 1998 he was also named a Queensland Delegate to the Constitutional Convention.

Governor General of Australia and resign on child molestation allegations

In April 2001 he was proposed by Prime Minister John Howard to succeed Sir William Patrick Deane for the office of Governor General of Australia and appointed shortly afterwards by Queen Elizabeth II . He officially assumed the office of 23rd Governor General after being sworn in on June 29, 2001.

In order to avoid controversies with other religions, Hollingworth refrained from addressing the bishop and wearing clerical clothing while retaining the sacrament of ordination . The appointment of a cleric in general, and Hollingworth in particular, generated some negative comments in the media from the start. In part it was shown that the incumbent Governor General William Deane was too popular because of his political opposition to Howard's social policy. On the other hand, it was underlined that the previous social work of Hollingworth was a basis for a future positioning of Australian society in social issues.

As governor general, however, he continued his work on ethics issues despite the allegations , in which he convened an ethics conference in Brisbane in October 2002.

In the course of 2001 voices were already being raised calling for his resignation as Governor General as he, as Archbishop of Brisbane, allegedly tried to prevent complaints and complaints about child abuse in the Anglican school in Toowoomba . On December 19, 2001, he issued a press release on the incidents.

In the weeks that followed, further details were revealed to the public and criticism of Hollingworth intensified. With his participation in the Australian Story program of the public television broadcaster ABC in February 2002, he sought to smooth the opposing waves of public opinion. While expressing his condolences to the victims of the abusing priests, he stated that his room for maneuver would have been limited as he also had to consider the possible financial consequences of the matter for the diocese. He was also under "great personal pressure". In connection with the relationship of a priest to a 14-year-old girl, who is legally underage, he said: "I don't think that was sexual abuse. Nobody is talking about rape or the like. Quite the contrary, my information says, that it was the other way around. "

This sentence in particular aroused the greatest public misunderstanding. Even reputable newspapers like The Age now demanded his immediate resignation. Opposition leader Simon Crean denied him judgment, and even government officials recommended that the governor-general "follow his conscience". Only Prime Minister John Howard was now unreservedly behind Hollingworth. In the weeks that followed, around two-thirds of the population voted for his resignation in polls.

Some organizations did not require the Governor General to attend their events. The matter dominated the national discussion until his departure, the Prime Minister stubbornly refused to issue the dismissal or demand Hollingworth's resignation. Despite the storm, he himself held on to his office, which was worth over AUD 300,000 .

An internal church report dated May 1, 2003 criticized him for not taking action in two cases of sexual abuse, in particular because he allowed a known perpetrator to continue working as a priest. Shortly thereafter, on May 8, 2003, pertinent rape allegations emerged in which Rosemarie Annie Jarmyn, who had recently committed suicide, accused Hollingworth herself of raping her during a church holiday camp in the 1960s. Hollingworth insisted there had to be some mix-up and that he never met Jarmyn.

Nonetheless, on May 11, 2003, he decided to leave his post pending the investigation. Although the further investigation into the case was stopped on May 23, 2003, he did not resume his office, but announced his resignation as Governor General on May 25, 2003, after having spoken to Queen Elizabeth II during her one-week state visit . In his nine-minute farewell speech, he expressed his hope that his resignation would also demonstrate that "the most vulnerable, our children, must be given top priority."

Following this most inglorious chapter in the history of the office, Guy Green , the governor of Tasmania , temporarily assumed the office of incumbent governor general (administrator) as the eldest governor of a state after service, before the previous governor of Western on August 11, 2003 Australia , Michael Jeffery , was sworn in as Australia's 24th Governor General.

Hollingworth after resigning

Hollingworth gave his first radio interview more than a year after his resignation on June 27, 2004, in which he also commented on his resignation and the previous allegations.

In 2007 he was critical of Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales on an ABC radio broadcast and complained about the bias against him of the article in the English language edition of the Internet Lexicon, which allegedly cited false reports from other media concerning him.

Hollingworth has recently settled in Melbourne and is active in charities. With a special permit from the Anglican Archdiocese, he is also allowed to hold church services as a retired clergyman.

honors and awards

In 1976 he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire . He was also awarded the Order of Australia (AO) in 1988 for his work in church and the community .

In 1991 he was voted Australian of the Year .

After his nomination to governor general, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature from Lambeth (D. Litt. Lambeth) on May 21, 2001 by Archbishop of Canterbury , George Leonard Carey , in recognition of his research, publications, teachings and achievements in the field the Christian social teaching , social care and episcopal leadership awarded. Even if the Lambeth doctorate does not require a dissertation , it is not an honorary doctorate , but rather a special award option by the respective Archbishop of Canterbury due to its establishment by a royal charter from the 16th century .

Hollingworth was also awarded six honorary doctorates from Australian universities.

Publications

• Australians In Poverty , Melbourne 1985

Web links

• Official biography on the website of the Governor General of Australia
• Biography on the Church of England homepage
• Biography on rulers.org (English)
• Key dates in the Life of Peter Hollingworth

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Anglican Archbishop Peter Hollingworth Appointed Next Governor-General" , article in Australianpolitics.com, April 22, 2001
2. ↑ "Peter Hollongworth shoulderstand never have given up his day job" , article in The Age of 22 October 2002
3. ^ "Toowoomba Preparatory School - Statement by The Governor General" , article in australianpolitics.com of December 19, 2001
4. ↑ ABC, Australian Story, transcript of the February 18, 2002 broadcast
5. ↑ "Abuse in the Catholic Church 2003" , press releases from May 7th, 11th and 23rd, 2003 ( Memento of the original of March 25th, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ ABC-TV, Lateline, May 28, 2003
7. ^ "ABC Radio: Big Ideas - Wisdom Interviews: Peter Hollingworth, June 27, 2004"
8. ↑ ABC Radio: Podcast  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ "Australian of the Year Award 1991"

predecessor	Office	successor
Sir William Patrick Deane	Governor General of Australia 2001–2003	Michael Jeffery

predecessor	Office	successor
John Grindrod	Archbishop of Brisbane 1989 - 2001	Phillip Aspinall