An Australian archbishop has been found guilty of concealing child sex abuse by a priest.
Philip Wilson, the archbishop of Adelaide, is expected to be sentenced by the court in June. He faces a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
The Australian media said it made him the most senior Catholic in the world to be convicted on such a charge.
He was accused of covering up a serious indictable offence by another priest, James Fletcher, after being told about it in1976 when he was an assistant parish priest in the state of New South Wales.
Lawyers for Wilson, 67, had argued that he did not know that Fletcher had abused a boy, ABC reported.
Fletcher was found guilty in 2004 of nine counts of child sexual abuse and died in jail in 2006.
An emailed statement from the local court in Newcastle, New South Wales, said Magistrate Robert Stone ruled the "offence proven".
Mr Stone said he did not accept that Wilson could not remember a conversation in 1976 in which the victim, who would have been 15 at the time, had described how he was abused by Fletcher a few years earlier.
"I am obviously disappointed at the decision published today," Wilson said in an emailed statement to media.
He said he would consult with his lawyers to decide his next steps.
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said Wilson had maintained his innocence throughout the judicial process.
His legal team reportedly made four attempts to have the case thrown out, arguing that Wilson's diagnosis of Alzheimer's should preclude him from trial, although it did not prevent him retaining his position in the church.
Last year, Australia completed a five-year government-appointed inquiry into child sex abuse in churches and other institutions, amid allegations worldwide that churches had protected paedophile priests by moving them from parish to parish.
The inquiry heard that 7% of Catholic priests working in Australia between 1950 and 2010 had been accused of child sex crimes and that nearly 1,100 people had filed child sexual assault claims against the Anglican Church over 35 years.
Wilson's conviction is another headache for Pope Francis, whose papacy has been haunted by allegations of sex abuse among Catholic priests.
Last week, 34 Chilean bishops announced their resignation over a child sex abuse scandal.
Several members of the Chilean church hierarchy are accused by victims of ignoring and covering up child abuse by Chilean paedophile priest Fernando Karadima during the 1980s and 1990s.
