Vatican Treasurer Delays Evidence to Australia Child Abuse Inquiry, Cites Illness

By Benjamin Gardner
Chronicle Daily
December 11, 2015

http://chronicledaily.com/2015/12/11/vatican-treasurer-delays-evidence-to-australia-child-abuse/


The judge chairing the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse denied the request and said he wanted Pell, the Vatican's prefect of the secretariat for the economy, to testify in person. Cardinal Pell's lawyer, Allan Meyers, QC, asked the commission on Friday to allow his client to testify via video link from Rome, where he is now head of the Vatican's finances, citing ill health. The medical certificates detailing Cardinal Pell's condition - which were partly in Italian - were suppressed. 'Cardinal Pell deeply regrets this and has been preparing himself for this journey for some time but the circumstances in which he finds himself are the circumstances that exist now. Justice McClennan said that while Cardinal Pell had previously given evidence from Rome, it was not appropriate this time as the issues before the commission were complex and involve two case studies covering an extensive period of time. "And our suggestion would be that if it can be so arranged, that that evidence be received on the 16th [December] as it was going to be received if he were here in person". 'In the hope that the cardinal's health will improve, rather than take video evidence this week, we will defer his evidence to the Ballarat sitting in both the Ballarat and Melbourne case studies, ' Justice McClellan said. 'If the cardinal's health has not sufficiently improved by then to enable him to travel, we will further consider the position, which may include further delaying his evidence to a date when he can travel safely to Australia'. The commission has rejected a bid by Cardinal Pell to give his evidence via videolink from Rome after his lawyers argued it would unsafe for him to travel to Australia due to serious health issues. It was preferable that his evidence be given in Australia, Justice McClellan said. In the reports a doctor in Rome said that the Cardinal flying to Melbourne this weekend was "in my opinion, at present... contra-indicated". "The Cardinal has suffered from a heart condition for some time but his symptoms have recently worsened, with a specialist cardiologist in Rome advising only a few days ago that it is not safe for him to undertake long haul flights in his current condition". "Cardinal Pell realises there may be some who will question the decision to remain in Rome", it said, adding that Pell had consistently expressed his intention to do everything possible to assist the inquiry. Mr Ridsdale, who flew from London to Melbourne for the hearing, said the buck stopped with Cardinal Pell as Australia's most senior Catholic figure. 'I'm not disappointed. I'm furious. The delay, until February, will frustrate victims and their advocates, who have heard testimony this year that priests suspected of abuse in Pell's former diocese were moved between parishes and put in church-appointed rehabilitation to avoid repercussions. 'I would implore Cardinal Pell to come and face the music like all of us men have had to do for all these years'.