Abuse Victims’ Final Words As They Head to Rome to Face Cardinal Pell

Starts at Sixty
February 25, 2016

http://startsatsixty.com.au/current-affairs/news/abuse-victims-final-words-as-they-head-to-rome-to-face-cardinal-pell

As they readied to board a plane to Rome to face Cardinal George Pell, church abuse survivors shared their thoughts, fears and hopes about the long trip to Italy.

A group of ten victims will leave today, accompanied by a small support team of counsellors and doctors who will help them through to difficult proceedings.

The group hope that by forcing Pell to face them in person as he gives his testimony, he will be compelled to give honest and factual responses to the Inquiry’s questions.

One of the survivors making the trip is David Ridsdale, who told the royal commission he phoned Pell in 1993 to tell him that his uncle Gerald Ridsdale was abusing him.

Instead of helping him and reporting Gerald to the police, Pell tried to silence David.

“What we’re hoping for is the same we’ve given, which is just truth,” David told the ABC.

“I guess it will with a part of the story, because it was the phone call I made to Cardinal Pell which set my trajectory on this very public path I’ve found myself, which was never my intention and something that was very difficult for me to have come to grips with.