Australian court convicts Catholic archbishop of covering up sexual abuse in the 1970s

On Tuesday, a magistrate judge in Australia convicted Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson of covering up the sexual abuse of minors in the 1970s, a charge that carries up to two years in prison. Wilson, 67, was released on bail until his June 9 sentencing. He is the highest ranking Catholic official to be convicted of covering up sexual abuse anywhere in the world. Two former altar boys testified that they had told Wilson in the mid-1970s that Jim Fletcher, a priest arrested for pedophilia in 2004, had abused them, and Wilson had done nothing. Wilson, who pleaded not guilty, said he had no recollection of being told about Fletcher's abuse at the time.

Unlike Cardinal George Pell, Australia's senior-most Catholic prelate and the Vatican's finance chief, Wilson was not accused of abusing anybody. The allegations that he covered up the two cases of sexual abuse surfaced in 2010 — four years after Fletcher died of a stroke in prison, after being convicted of nine counts of child sexual abuse — and police charged Wilson in 2015. "The case against the archbishop was especially surprising, given his reputation for acknowledging and apologizing to the victims of pedophile priests," The New York Times reports. You can learn more and hear from the victims in the report below. Peter Weber

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