User talk:Megapodius

Philip Wilson (Bishop)
The then Archbishop Wilson of Adelaide was charged with the following:

This was the charge: ‘Between 12:01 am on 22/04/2004 and 11:59 pm on 07/01/2006 at East Maitland. Whereas [J] in 1971 committed a serious indictable offence, namely, indecent assault of a male, aged 10 years old, Philip Edward WILSON between 22 April 2004 and 7 January 2006 at MAITLAND and elsewhere in the State of New South Wales, believing that [J] committed that offence and knowing that he had information which might be of material assistance in securing the prosecution of [J] for that offence, without reasonable excuse, failed to bring that information to the attention of a member of the New South Wales Police Force.’

Reference: www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=55991

Wilson was charged under section 316(1) of the NSW Criminal Code.

In 1999 NSW Law Review Commission recommended that subsection 316(1) be repealed as unworkable.

Reference: www.lawreform.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Publications/Reports/Report-93.pdf

Megapodius (talk) 03:25, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

After looking at the case against Bishop Wilson it seems he, and all Clergy for that matter, cannot report child sex abuse to civil authorities since changes to Canonical Law dating from 1917/1918. Why? Because the Pope at the time and subsequent Popes say so. It is Canonical Law as I understand it. Wilson as a Canonical Lawyer would be more aware than most of what he can say about a fellow priest (any fellow priest) at a Civil Trial. Note that the Catholic Church has been responsible for its own legal system, trials, judgements etc since about 313(CE) when authority was given it to do so by Emperor Constantine.

Read "Canon Law on Sexual Abuse through the Ages" by K Tapsell.