Nationality Australian Spouse(s) Alison Occupation Catholic priest Name John Fleming | Years active 1995 – present Role Priest Religion Christian Home town Adelaide | |
Born 12 June 1943 (age 80) ( 1943-06-12 ) Port Lincoln, South Australia, Australia Denomination Catholic, previously Anglican Parents Thomas Robert, Gwenda May Fleming Books Convinced by the Truth: Embracing the Fullness of Catholic Faith Education University of Adelaide, Australian College of Theology, Griffith University | ||
John Irving Fleming is an Australian priest and bioethicist. He was the founding president of Campion College.
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Between 2014 and 2016, he pursued a high profile, but unsuccessful, defamation action against The Advertiser and Sunday Mail in the Supreme Court of South Australia regarding reports of sexual misconduct as an Anglican priest. On 9 February 2017 it was decreed that he was to cease all forms of ministry.
Career
John Fleming was a high-profile Anglo-Catholic priest in the Anglican Church of Australia's Adelaide diocese. He was ordained in 1970. He became a Roman Catholic in 1987. Although married with three children, he was given a papal dispensation permitting his ordination in the Catholic Church in 1995.
During his career he has been:
He has served on a number of bioethics boards:
Media
Fleming was a weekly columnist of The Advertiser in Adelaide and presented radio programs for a number of years. In 2005, while the president of Campion College in Sydney, Fleming hosted a short-lived talkback radio program on 2UE.
Community
Fleming was an elected delegate to the 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention associated with Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. In 2003, he was appointed by the Howard Government to the council of the National Museum of Australia with his term ending in 2009.
Education
Fleming has a B.A. from the University of Adelaide, a Licentiate in Theology from the Australian College of Theology and a Ph.D. in philosophy and bioethics from Griffith University. His Ph.D. thesis was titled "Human rights and natural law : an analysis of the consensus gentium and its implications for bioethics".
Personal
Fleming is the son of an Anglican priest. He is married to Alison and they have three children.
Allegations of abuse
Subsequent to his appointment to Campion College, media reports were published alleging sexual impropriety by Fleming with a number of people when he was an Anglican priest. It was stated that the allegations were known to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, the Most Reverend Leonard Faulkner, at the time of his Roman Catholic ordination in 1995 and thus also at the time of his appointment to Campion College in 2004.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Adelaide reinstated Fleming as a priest in 2011 and he initiated a defamation case against the Sunday Mail in regard to a number of stories published on the complaints and investigations. In December 2012 the investigations into these allegations had not been finalised. The case commenced 7 October 2014.
On 24 February 2016, Father John Fleming, lost his defamation case against The Advertiser and Sunday Mail regarding articles about his sexual misconduct. The Supreme Court of South Australia ruled 'the articles truthfully conveyed imputations that Fr Fleming was engaged in "sexual misconduct, predatory sexual behaviour, morally reprehensible and deceitful conduct, an immoral, adulterous, homosexual affair, hypocrisy, abuse of trust, moral cowardice and false denial of sexual involvement."' with costs awarded against him.
Fleming appealed against the dismissal of the claim for damages for defamation to the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia. On 29 September 2016, this appeal was unanimously dismissed when the Full Court found no errors of law were made in the earlier judgement. Costs were awarded against him.
Fleming lodged an application for special leave to appeal with the High Court of Australia, the application was refused as it did 'not raise a question of general importance. None of the applicant's proposed appeal grounds enjoys sufficient prospects of success to warrant a grant of special leave. Special leave should be refused with costs.'
It was decreed under canon law on 9 February 2017 by Philip Marshall, Vicar General, Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide that John Fleming was to immediately cease all forms of ministry.