John Fleming (priest)

The son of an Anglican priest, Fleming graduated with a B.A. from the University of Adelaide, a Licentiate in Theology from the Australian College of Theology and a PhD in philosophy and bioethics from Griffith University.[3] His PhD thesis was titled "Human rights and natural law : an analysis of the consensus gentium and its implications for bioethics".[4]

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.

As an Anglican priest in the early 1970s he served as university chaplain and priest in charge of St Paul's Church in Adelaide and dean and vice-master of St Mark's College at the University of Adelaide. Between 1977 and 1978 he was assistant curate at St. Nicholas Church, Chiswick, in West London; and between 1978 and 1987 was the rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Plympton. As a Roman Catholic lay person, between 1987 and 1995, he was the founding director of Southern Cross Bioethics Institute. As a Roman Catholic priest, Fleming was director of the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute between 1995 and 2004; and from 2001, a faculty member of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family. He served as the founding president of Campion College between 2004 and 2009. He was an Adjunct Professor of Bioethics at the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute, until its closure in 2012.

He has served on a number of bioethics boards including as a foundation member of UNESCO's International Bioethics Committee (1992-1996); and between 13 July 1996 and 13 July 2016, a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.[5] Fleming was a member of the SA Council on Reproductive Technology (1998-2004) and a Member of the Gene Technology Ethics Committee (from 2002) set up under the Australian Gene Technology Act 2000.

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.[6]

Fleming was an elected delegate to the 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention associated with Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.[7] In 2003, he was appointed by the Howard Government to the council of the National Museum of Australia with his term ending in 2009.[8]

Fleming is married to Alison and they have three children.

Five years after his appointment to Campion College, media reports were published alleging sexual impropriety by Fleming with 3 people when he was an Anglican priest some 37 years previously. Nigel Hunt, a journalist for The Advertiser/Sunday Mail, claimed that these allegations were known to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, the Most Reverend Leonard Faulkner, at the time of his Roman Catholic ordination.

Three months after these accusations were made public, the South Australian Police wrote to Fleming's lawyer advising that the matter "has been finalised by police" and that "there will be no formal charges laid against Fleming".[9]

In 2011 Fleming returned to Adelaide where he continued to work as a priest. He initiated a defamation case against the Sunday Mail regarding several stories published on the complaints and investigations.[10][11] These matters had been finalised by SA Police and by the Catholic Church. The Anglican Church ceased investigations on 24 November 2020.[12]

Between 7 October 2014[13] and the end of September 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 alleged sexual misconduct as an Anglican priest.[14]

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.[14]

Fleming applied for special leave to appeal with the High Court of Australia, the application was refused because two judges stated that 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.'[15][16]

In the judgements of the Supreme Court, it was ruled that the ''Briginshaw'' standard of proof (including the presumption of innocence) no longer applied in civil matters. This was the matter of general importance that the High Court refused to deal with. Subsequently, the Federal Court in NSW found that ''Briginshaw'' did apply in a civil case involving allegations of criminal sexual behaviour. Actor Geoffrey Rush successfully sued for defamation.[17]

Fleming again sought leave to appeal to the High Court. The High Court denied leave again saying there was no matter of general importance involved.

Just 16 days after the High Court refused Fleming's second application for leave to appeal, the Full Court of the SA Supreme Court brought down their judgement in another defamation matter involving alleged criminal behaviour. The case was that of Poniatowska v Channel Seven Sydney Pty Ltd [2019] SASCFC 111 (27 September 2019). Here the same Supreme Court (SA), contrary to its ruling in the Fleming matter, ruled that Briginshaw did apply in a civil matter involving defamation and alleged criminal behaviour.

The controversial decision in Fleming was subsequently criticised by Emeritus Professor David Flint,[18] Dr Paul Collits,[19] and Professor Augusto Zimmermann.[20] Each of these scholars has noted that Fleming had been denied the presumption of innocence and that uncorroborated accusations against a Catholic priest are deemed to be prima facie true even though Fleming's evidence of his innocence was corroborated by eyewitnesses.

Concerning Father Fleming and the Catholic Church, the decree of 9 February 2017 was revoked on 26 August 2019. A new Decree of the same date observed that the "Reverend John Fleming has not been found guilty of a delict[21] and that he is not under ecclesiastical censure" and that in the current climate generated by the media it is better "for the welfare of Father Fleming and for the common good of the Church in this archdiocese, in Australia" that he no longer exercise a public ministry. These restrictions "apply to the Archdiocese of Adelaide alone" and Father Fleming is free "to approach the local ordinary of any other diocese seeking permission to officiate as a priest".[22] Father Fleming is free to appeal against this decree to the Congregation for the Clergy at the Holy See.

• Fleming, John Irving; Christian Television Association (1977), Father John's response : answers to questions, Christian Television Association, retrieved 25 December 2012
• Overduin, Daniel Ch (Daniel Christiaan); Fleming, John Irving, 1943- (1982), Life in a test-tube : medical and ethical issues facing society today, Lutheran Publishing House, ISBN 978-0-85910-203-2CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Fleming, John Irving; Fundacion Banco Bilbao Vizcaya; Catedra Interuniversitaria Fundacion BBVA-Diputacion Foral de Bizkaia de Derecho y Genoma Humano (1996), Ethics and the Human Genome Diversity Project, Fundacion Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (BBV Foundation), retrieved 25 December 2012
• Krohn, Anna M; Fleming, John Irving, 1943-; Southern Cross Bioethics Institute (1994), Genetics & ethics, Southern Cross Bioethics Institute, ISBN 978-0-646-19012-9CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Fleming, John Irving; Pike, Gregory K. (Gregory Kym); Ewing, Selena; Southern Cross Bioethics Institute (2002), Human embryos : a limitless scientific resource? : what the Research Involving Embryos and Prohibition of Human Cloning Bill 2002 really allows (1st ed.), Southern Cross Bioethics Institute, ISBN 978-0-9581526-0-0
• Fleming, John (2003). "The Code and The Guide – practical instruments for practical people : a reply to Cannold". Res Publica. Melbourne. 12 (1): 16–19.
• Fleming, John Irving; Ewing, Selena; Southern Cross Bioethics Institute (2005), Give women choice : Australia speaks on abortion, Southern Cross Bioethics Institute, ISBN 978-0-9581526-1-7
• Fleming, John Irving, 1943-; Tonti-Filippini, Nicholas (2007), Common ground? : seeking an Australian consensus on abortion and sex education, St Pauls Publications, ISBN 978-1-921032-64-6CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Fleming, John Irving (2010), Convinced by the truth : embracing the fullness of Catholic faith, Connor Court Publishing, ISBN 978-1-921421-11-2
• Fleming, John Irving (2010), Dignitas Personae Explained: The Church's teaching on reproductive and related technologies, Connor Court Publishing, ISBN 978-1-921421-51-8