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Will Cardinal George Pell attend the Royal Commission in person? Stay tuned

Broken Rites
February 01, 2016

http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/391

Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission will officially inquire in early February 2016 whether Cardinal George Pell is prepared to appear in the witness box in Australia later in February to answer questions about how the Catholic Church, historically, has dealt with clergy sexual abuse in two Australian cities — Melbourne and Ballarat. At present, Pell seeks to remain in the Vatican, instead of re-visiting Australia.

Since May 2015, the Royal Commission has been holding a series of occasional public hearings to obtain information about the archdiocese of Melbourne (covering the Melbourne metropolitan area) and the diocese of Ballarat (covering the western half of the state of Victoria). The Melbourne inquiry is Case Study 35, while Ballarat is Case Study 28.

George Pell, who was born in Ballarat, was originally a priest in the Ballarat diocese. He was later the archbishop of Melbourne (from 1996 to 2001) and then became the archbishop of Sydney before gaining his current senior role in the Vatican.

During a four-weeks public hearing in November-December 2015, the Royal Commission examined a series of submissions concerning clergy sexual crimes in Melbourne and Ballarat. The Royal Commission heard from victims in Ballarat and Melbourne who alleged that church leaders had been ignoring or concealing these crimes. The Commission also questioned priests from Ballarat and Melbourne who replied to many of the Commission's questions by stating: "I do not remember" or "I cannot recall".

George Pell was originally scheduled to step into the Commission's witness box in Melbourne on 16 December 2015. But in mid-December he became unavailable to do this.

Cardinal Pell is a frequent flyer. In March 2015, for example, Pell made a private trip to Australia, including Ballarat. This was revealed in a magazine of St Patrick's College (Pell's old school in Ballarat), which showed a photo of Pell visiting the school. Pell's trip was so private that even the Australian bishops' spokesman on Royal Commission matters (Mr Francis Sullivan, from the church's "Truth, Justice and Healing Commission") did not know about it until journalists told him in May 2015; and, by this time, Pell presumably had flown back to Rome.

In November-December 2015, Australian observers noticed several interesting events occurring in church affairs:

  • In November 2015, just weeks before he was due to attend the Royal Commission in Melbourne, Pell travelled to France (to visit World War One battlefields), according to a report published later in the Melbourne Herald Sun.
  • By early December 2015, the Royal Commission was well advanced into its four-weeks public hearing about Melbourne and Ballarat matters.
  • Around this time (according to a later reports), Victoria Police detectives were investigating complaints about child-sex assaults that were allegedly committed at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral between 1996 and 2001. On Wednesday 2 December (according to Fairfax Media), detectives from the Victoria Police sex-crimes squad executed a search warrant on premises associated with Melbourne's St Patrick's Catholic cathedral.
  • On Friday 11 December (three working-days before Pell was due to be in the witness-box in Melbourne), it was announced at the Royal Commission public hearing that Cardinal Pell has decided that, for "health" reasons, he does not wish to make another plane trip from Rome to Melbourne [even if travelling in first-class, and even if the trip is done in stages with stopovers along the way]. Instead, Pell wanted to give his evidence via video-link in Rome, forcing the Royal Commissioners [and the victims and their families] to watch this on a video screen in Australia. However, the Royal Commission rejected this request.
  • On 23 December, the Victoria Police sex crimes squad issued a media release, saying that the squad's Sano Taskforce wants to hear from any members of the public who have knowledge about any child-sex assaults that were allegedly committed at Melbourne's cathedral between 1996 and 2001. To read more about this police investigation, click HERE.

The Royal Commission has ruled that Pell's next opportunity to answer the Commission's questions, under oath in the witness box in Australia (instead of merely issuing media releases to journalists), will be when this same public hearing (on the Melbourne and Ballarat case-studies) is scheduled to resume in late February 2016 — this time in Ballarat. On 5 February 2016, the Commission is planning to hold a directions hearing in Sydney to discuss arrangements for the forthcoming appearance — or non-appearance — of George Pell in the witness box in Australia.




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