Mourners have gathered in Melbourne\u2019s southeast to farewell bishop and former governor-general Peter Hollingworth, known for his advocacy for children living in poverty and his controversial handling of child sexual abuse in the Anglican Church. <\/p>\n
The retired Anglican bishop died on May 19 at the age of 91. <\/p>\n
His funeral was held at Christ Church in South Yarra on Friday.<\/p>\n
A sea of white roses and lilies cascaded over his casket as the choir sang hymns in the Melbourne church, with friends, family and members of the Anglican Church dressed in black as they mourned the bishop\u2019s passing. <\/p>\n
Dr Hollingworth\u2019s legacy is complex in the Anglican Church \u2013 known for his advocacy for children living in poverty and his failure to remove pedophile priests despite knowing they sexually abused children. <\/p>\n
He was born in Adelaide in 1935 and ordained in 1960 before serving as the eighth Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane for 11 years.<\/p>\n
He clashed with former prime minister Bob Hawke, publishing an open letter to The Age in 1984 accusing the Labor government of failing to protect nearly one million children living in poverty. <\/p>\n
In 1991, he was named Australian of the Year and recognised with an Order of the British Empire and an Order of Australia for his contributions to community welfare. <\/p>\n
Speaking to mourners on Friday, one of his daughters said Dr Hollingworth was a dedicated and loving grandfather, father and friend. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was engaged and interested with what was going on in our lives and those of our friends,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he dropped everything if ever we needed him. He was indeed very present and nurturing.\u201d<\/p>\n
She described her father as a \u201cwise and special man\u201d who was always \u201cseeking to understand\u201d others. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe loved his deep curiosity about what he described as the human condition and his constant openness to gain a richer understanding of humanity, always seeking to understand, which is a model for us,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Former executive of the Brotherhood of St Laurence Tony Nicholson said Dr Hollingworth was the \u201ccatalyst for a public awareness campaign that commanded national attention\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said Dr Hollingworth was a fierce advocate for those struggling with poverty.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe recognised, and he wasn\u2019t afraid to say it, that ultimately then, as now, fostering the common good relies upon finding fairer ways of distributing the great wealth of nation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
From 2001 to 2003, Dr Hollingworth held the role of governor-general \u2013 the first and only cleric to serve in the position.<\/p>\n
However, an Anglican Church inquiry found that he had failed to remove pedophile priests Donald Shearman and John Elliot from the ministry in Brisbane in the 1990s despite knowing they had sexually abused children. <\/p>\n
He resigned as governor-general in 2003 due to the \u201ccontinuing public controversy\u201d.<\/p>\n
He testified at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016 that found he made a \u201cserious error of judgment\u201d in allowing Elliot to continue his work in the ministry despite admitting to abusing two boys. <\/p>\n
At the funeral service, Dr Hollingworth\u2019s daughter recalled the family\u2019s \u201cdifficult move\u201d from Melbourne to Brisbane.<\/p>\n
\u201cCulturally, it was profoundly different to life in the inner city,\u201d she said.
\u201cAnd the appointment would carry consequences that none of us could have foreseen.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Dr Hollingworth\u2019s appointment as governor-general of Australia was one he \u201creally sought to embrace\u201d, seeing it as an \u201copportunity to progress the many causes that he had spent a lifetime to achieve\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, as we know, he became the public face and lightning rod for the institutional failures to prevent and address child sexual abuse,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he bore that burden heavily, as did we all.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Dr Hollingworth was aware there was a \u201cdark shadow over the church\u201d that she said followed him \u201cevery day\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew that his story was caught up within it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as he said publicly, \u2018I live with these decisions and failures every day of my life\u2019. He accepted that with humility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mourners have gathered in Melbourne\u2019s southeast to farewell bishop and former governor-general Peter Hollingworth, known for his advocacy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[395,23864,14687,23,133,23863,99,23857,13950,23850,23849,23854,23865,23859,23869,23867,23866,23853,23862,23861,4102,23856,23855,260,23852,379,120,3217,23871,14684,23870,489,23851,212,23868,2801,1935,14689,121,23858,23860,68],"class_list":["post-25491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-adelaide","tag-anglican-archbishop","tag-anglican-church","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bob-hawke","tag-brisbane","tag-child-poverty","tag-child-sexual-abuse","tag-christ-church-anglican","tag-community-welfare","tag-controversial-handling","tag-dark-shadow","tag-dave-hunt","tag-donald-shearman","tag-ending-child-poverty","tag-feirce-advocate","tag-funeral-service","tag-helping-children","tag-human-condition","tag-inner-city","tag-john-elliot","tag-lightning-rod","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-church","tag-newswire-news","tag-oceania","tag-parliament-house","tag-pedophile-priests","tag-peter-hollingworth","tag-priest-headshot","tag-prime-minister","tag-public-awarness-campaign","tag-queensland","tag-right-reverend-peter","tag-sam-mostyn","tag-sarah","tag-sexual-abuse","tag-south-australia","tag-south-yarra-church","tag-special-man","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}