Cardinal George Pell gives evidence in Rome to the royal commission into child sexual abuse

By Shannon Deery
Courier Mail
February 28, 2016

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Cardinal George Pell arrives at a hotel in Rome where he is giving evidence to the royal commission. Photo by David Mirzoeff

George Pell and Gerald Ridsdale.

Monsignor John Day

Bishop Ronald Mulkearns giving evidence to the royal commission last week.

CARDINAL George Pell has admitted catastrophic failures by the Catholic Church in relation to child sexual abuse, a subject he says was on his radar from the early 1970s.

The cardinal appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via videolink from Rome this morning.

In his third appearance before the commission he was probed for four hours, with just one 15 minute break, about his knowledge of child sexual abuse matters.

Four witnesses have told the royal commission they believed the cardinal was complicit in a widespread cover-up of abuse.

He today acknowledged there had been massive failings by the church to deal with the scourge, but said fault lay with individuals rather than the organisation.

Singling out former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns, Pell said he had failed to deal with the matter adequately.

He said he was aware the retired bishop, who has started giving his evidence to the commission in a separate hearing, destroyed church documents ahead of a Victorian parliamentary abuse inquiry.

He said the handling of Gerald Ridsdale, who has admitted abusing hundreds of children, was a catastrophe.

“I think the faults overwhelmingly have been more personal faults, personal failures, rather than structures,” he said.

Mulkearns regularly shuffled Ridsdale between parishes, and interstate, and sent him overseas for treatment. He offended almost everywhere he went.

“I think there was something of a pattern similar to what he used on Ridsdale with some others,” Cardinal Pell said.

“The way he was dealt with was a catastrophe, a catastrophe for the victims and a catastrophe for the church.

“If effective action had been taken earlier an enormous amount of suffering would have been avoided.”

The cardinal said too many victims of abuse were dismissed in “scandalous” circumstances, admitting the church had failed.

“Too many of them certainly were dismissed and sometimes they were dismissed in absolutely scandalous circumstances,” he said.

“They were very plausible allegations made by responsible people (that) were not followed up sufficiently.”

The cardinal said it was a general practice not to report allegations of abuse to police.

“The instinct was more to protect the institution, the community of the church from shame,” he said.

“The general community attitudes were different, within the police, within the government service, within the Catholic Church, were different from what they are now.”

The cardinal said child sexual abuse was on his radar from about 1971, when he first heard gossip about paedophile priest Monsignor John Day.

“It was a great scandal,” Pell said.

Pell said there was gossip and discussion about Monsignor Day’s activity at the time, both among priests and the wider Catholic community.

But he said he was inclined not to believe the whispers, because they had been denied by Day.

When quizzed by Counsel Assisting Gail Furness, SC, about who knew what about the sexual abuse crisis in Ballarat East, Pell agreed that students, parents, priests and Bishop Mulkearns had knowledge of offending by various priests.

One of the most notorious, Ridsdale, served in Swan Hill shortly before Pell did. The pair then lived together for between nine and ten months.

But Pell said he had no idea about Ridsdale’s offending, but earlier admitted his “memory is sometimes fallible”.

Pell served as the Episcopal Vicar for Education, the bishop’s representative, in the Ballarat Diocese under Bishop Mulkearns between 1973 and 1984.

In a letter to Bishop Mulkearns in 1984 the cardinal described his role as being “the essential link between Bishop, priests, parents, teachers and students.”

He said during his time in the role he couldn’t remember any complaints of abuse being brought to him.

But when pushed on the issue he said: “My memory might be playing me false”.

In an early admission Cardinal Pell has admitted the Catholic Church had mishandled the child sexual abuse crisis.

“I’m not here to defend the indefensible,” he said.

“The church has made enormous mistakes and is working to remedy those, but the church... in many places, certainly in Australia, has mucked things up. Has let people down.”

Cardinal Pell followed the comments by saying he believed Australia had done more than most to address the child sexual abuse crisis.

“There are very few countries in the world who have advanced as far as the Catholic Church has in Australia in putting procedures into place nearly 20 years ago. I think that’s a matter of record.”