The rise and fall of the poverty-fighter who became GG

Peter Hollingworth devoted much of his life to tackling poverty but will be remembered as the vicar general deposed for the way he handled sexual abuse cases as archbishop.

Australia’s only religious governor-general spent less than two years in Yarralumla before bowing to violent pressure and resigning in May 2003.

Peter John Hollingworth AO OBE, who died on Tuesday aged 91, was born in Adelaide on 10 April 1935.

He went to school in Melbourne and joined the BHP before being drafted into the army in 1953 and appointed to the chaplaincy after basic training.

Returning as a civilian, he completed his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Melbourne in 1960; This year he married Ann Turner, a physical therapist (Kathleen) whom he first met at a suburban church dance. They had three daughters.

After a few years as a priest in an Anglican group ministry in inner Melbourne, he joined the charity Fellowship of St Laurence in 1964 as a chaplain and director of youth and children’s work.

He would work for the fraternity for 25 years, starting in 1980 as executive director.

It was here that he became a household name in his campaigns against poverty. He irritated governments with his demands for more to be done and irritated the then prime minister, Bob Hawke.

He wrote several books on poverty and was made canon of St Paul’s Cathedral in 1980 and bishop in 1985, while still leading the fraternity.

Secular honors also arrived. In 1991 he was listed in the inaugural Australian Living Treasures and Australian of the Year; He used this position to highlight the plight of young unemployed people.

He was elected Archbishop of Brisbane in 1989, becoming the first Australian-born person to hold this position.

In 2001, he was chosen as the 23rd governor general of Australia by then prime minister John Howard.

“It took my breath away,” he said of the bid, which he went into hoping Mr. Howard would sit down.

Speaking on a wide range of topics, including voluntary euthanasia, mandatory sentencing, opposition to same-sex couples adopting children and GST on food, better treatment of illegal immigrants and apologizing to Aboriginal Australians, Dr. Hollingworth said one of his biggest challenges will be keeping his mouth shut.

Mr Howard’s choice was criticized because having an archbishop at Yarralumla (although he did not use that title there) would blur the lines between church and state.

This has never been a problem. The problem was that the skeletons in the bishop’s closet in Brisbane started rattling in early 2003.

The gist of the allegations against Dr Hollingworth was that, as archbishop, he had failed to act compassionately towards allegations of child abuse at the Toowoomba Anglican school.

These included allowing a bishop to continue preaching despite allegations that he molested a 14-year-old girl in the 1950s and appointing a choirmaster who faced similar allegations to the church abuse committee.

Dr Hollingworth confirmed he abhorred child abuse and denied a cover-up, but sparked outrage with a televised statement suggesting the girl had initiated the relationship in one case.

He also acknowledged that his responses to victims may have been heavily influenced by legal advice.

Soon the media and the Labor Party began to behead him, but Mr Howard said there was no reason for the dismissal.

Fresh ammunition came from a church report that said it had acted “indefensibly” by allowing a self-confessed pedophile to remain a priest.

The Senate, Labor and minor parties joined forces to call for his departure; and a poll found 76 per cent of Australians wanted him to quit.

Meanwhile, the Labor Party’s excavations led to Dr. It uncovered a civil case in which Hollingworth was accused of raping a girl at a church youth camp in the early 1960s.

Dr Hollingworth denied all this and said he had never been to a youth camp during the period in question. But he resigned pending the outcome of the case, and Tasmania’s governor, Sir Guy Green, flew in to take over his duties.

The accuser took his life and his family dropped the case.

At the time, Dr Hollingworth was being treated for depression and his wife was battling breast cancer.

He announced his resignation on May 25, saying the controversy was undermining his position as deputy royal.

Dr Hollingworth returned to Melbourne and resumed some pastoral duties, including two mornings a week at a homeless center and some preaching.

But his desire to work with child abuse victims was thwarted by opposition from support groups who did not want to be associated with him.

He generally kept a low profile, although prominent politicians attended state funerals.

In a rare interview in 2005, he attributed his collapse to “a strong secular culture willing to undermine anything religious.”

But in 2016 he appeared before the royal commission into institutional sexual abuse to apologize to the victim of a pedophile priest and admit he had made a mistake in allowing the priest to continue working.

A church investigation in 2023 found misconduct by allowing pedophiles to remain in the church.

Dr Hollingworth accepted the findings of the inquiry, saying he had “made mistakes and I can’t take them back” but said he had not committed any offence.

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