Leonard Faulkner

In 1999, Faulkner caused controversy when he defied Vatican pressure to cease the practice of communal confession, wherein a priest may grant absolution without hearing individual confessions.[5] Following a meeting with Australian bishops in late 1998, Pope John Paul II sent a letter to all Australian bishops outlining concerns with the relaxed nature of Australian Catholicism. In particular, he formally requested that the bishops eliminate the use of communal confession.[6] While the dioceses of most other capital cities in the country abandoned the practice, Faulkner refused, allowing communal confession during Lent of 1999.[5][7] In June 1999, Faulkner sent a pastoral message to all parishes in the Archdiocese of Adelaide allowing communal confession, but requiring prior approval from the Archbishop.[8] This made Adelaide one of the few places in Australia where communal confession was still practised.[8]

In November 2000, Pope John Paul II appointed the bishop of Wollongong, Philip Wilson, to the position of coadjutor Archbishop of Adelaide, in doing so naming him as Faulkner's successor.[9] On 3 December 2001, two days before his seventy-fifth birthday, Faulkner retired as archbishop, and Wilson was installed as his successor.[10] As a retired Archbishop, Faulkner retained the title of Archbishop Emeritus. An autobiographical book based on his edited memories, A Listening Ministry, appeared in 2016.[11]