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Live stream: Cardinal George Pell to give evidence to Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse via video-link from Rome

9 News
February 29, 2016

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/02/29/07/48/cardinal-pell-to-give-evidence-via-video-link-from-rome

Cardinal George Pell gave evidence from Rome.

[with video]

Australian survivors of childhood sex abuse have sat in attendance at today’s royal commission hearing, as Cardinal George Pell embarked on day one of his testimony, via video-link from a hotel room in Rome.

Cardinal Pell, who said he could not travel to Australia for the hearing due to health problems, said child sex abuse was a historical issue.

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

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

Child abuse victim Andrew Collins stressed that attendance by victims was “not about Pell” but “the culture of the church” and Cardinal Pell’s ability to change that culture.

Cardinal Pell, who controls The Vatican’s finances, is answering questions over Case Study 28 in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, concerning allegations of child sex abuse in Catholic churches in Melbourne and Ballarat.

Cardinal Pell said “personal faults” were to blame rather than “structural” problems in the church, but also said he would have believed the denials of pedophile priests.

During today’s hearing, he was asked specifically about the accusations of child sex abuse against Monsignor John Day in 1971 and 1972, which occurred while he was serving was an assistant priest in the Swan Hill parish.

Cardinal Pell confided that during that period, it was not common practice to call the police in relation to allegations of abuse.

“I must say in those days if a priest denied such activity, I was very strongly inclined to accept the denial,” he said.

“Too many of [the accusations] certainly were dismissed, and sometimes they were dismissed in absolutely scandalous circumstances.”

The commission has heard former Victorian policeman Denis Ryan's attempts to investigate the child sex abuse claims against Monsignor Day were stymied by both the church and other police officers.

Monsignor Day was not charged after the 1971 to 1972 allegations.

Fifteen people have told the church they were sexually abused as children by Monsignor Day between 1954 and 1973. All the claims were made after his death.

Cardinal Pell expressed criticisms of then-senior Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, but insisted nevertheless that he personally had had no knowledge of pedophilia within the church in the early 1970s, despite his one-time roommate, Gerald Ridsdale, being one of the most prolific offenders.

He said the way Ridsdale was dealt with – being moved from parish to parish following multiple allegations, granting him further opportunity to offend – was a “catastrophe” to both victims and the church.

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

Cardinal Pell’s testimony marks the third time he has provided evidence to the royal commission, in answer to several lines of questioning.

Between 1973 and 1984, Cardinal Pell was a Ballarat East priest, Episcopal Vicar for Education in the Ballarat diocese and an adviser to the Ballarat bishop.

Cardinal Pell presided over St Alipius primary school where four Christian Brothers were pedophiles.

He and another priest lived in a presbytery with Australia's worst pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale in 1973.

Cardinal Pell was Melbourne auxiliary bishop (1987 to 1996), responsible for a region including Doveton which had a succession of pedophile priests, and then Melbourne archbishop (1996 to 2001).

David Ridsdale claims when he told Cardinal Pell in 1993 he had been abused by his uncle, Cardinal Pell said: "I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet."

Cardinal Pell denies the allegation.

Timothy Green, 53, said when he was 12 or 13 he told Cardinal Pell that Brother Edward Dowlan was abusing boys at Ballarat's St Patrick's College in 1974.

"Father Pell said ‘don't be ridiculous’ and walked out,” Mr Green said.

Cardinal Pell said he had no recollection of a conversation with Mr Green, insisting it did not happen.

A former altar boy said he overheard Cardinal Pell tell Father Frank Madden before a funeral in Ballarat in 1983, "Ha, ha, I think Gerry's been rooting boys again."

Cardinal Pell's barrister Sam Duggan said the allegation was utterly false, while Father Madden himself has denied it, claiming the cardinal never used that kind of language.

 




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