CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's prime minister has called on Pope Francis to fire an Australian archbishop who is the most senior Roman Catholic cleric ever convicted for covering up child sexual abuse.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said two weeks ago that Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson should have resigned when he was convicted in May of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by a pedophile priest in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s.

Turnbull told reporters on Thursday the 67-year-old cleric should not be allowed to remain an archbishop while he appealed against his conviction.

Wilson has said he would only offer his resignation to Francis if his appeal against his conviction fails in the New South Wales state District Court.