George Pell fights for reputation as key evidence rejected

By Tessa Akerman, Pia Akerman, Rebecca Urban
Australian
November 01, 2016

https://goo.gl/54rJip

Cardinal George Pell has rejected the key submissions of counsel assisting, arguing his position was being used to make an example of him when he had limited power.

Counsel assisting the royal commission yesterday criticised Cardinal Pell’s failure to deal ­adequately with offending in Melbourne and Ballarat, and called for key evidence from Cardinal Pell to be rejected. The explosive recommendations in nearly 1000 pages critiquing Cardinal Pell and the church will place growing pressure on the Vatican to deal with its third most senior figure.

They suggest Cardinal Pell faces heavy criticism in the royal commission’s final report, which will include multiple references to the Catholic Church’s systemic failures on abuse.

Cardinal Pell has rejected the key submissions of counsel assisting, arguing his position was being used to make an example of him when he had limited power, even though he has been auxiliary bishop or higher since 1987.

Victims, of whom there are hundreds and possibly thousands in Victoria alone, hailed the recommendations but warned that a national redress schemes needed to be set up urgently.

The key criticisms of Cardinal Pell include that: he and others were responsible for moving ­offender Gerald Ridsdale around the diocese of Ballarat; he had been warned — but failed to act — over offender Ted Dowlan; and he should have independently investigated another offender, Peter Lloyd Searson.

Gail Furness SC and Stephen Free submitted that Cardinal Pell’s evidence that he was intentionally deceived by the Catholic Education Office (CEO) in the late 1980s regarding Searson should be rejected. Searson was a former parish priest in southeast Melbourne who allegedly mol­ested a girl, paraded a dead body to minors and brought a gun to school. Counsel assisting were critical of the CEO for failing to address the issue. “Cardinal Pell should also have taken direct ­action of his own to investigate the veracity of the complaints, in particular the allegation of sexual misconduct,” they said in submissions. “His failure to take any such action meant that Cardinal Pell, like other senior officials in the archdiocese before and after him, missed an important opportunity to recognise and deal with the ­serious risks posed by Searson.

“Cardinal Pell and other senior archdiocesan officials failed to ­exercise proper care for the children of Doveton.”

Cardinal Pell’s lawyers strenuously rejected this assertion, arguing the finding “unfairly makes (then) bishop Pell the scapegoat for failures with respect to Searson for which he was not to blame’’. Searson died in 2009, aged 86 years, without being charged with any offences.

Counsel assisting also criticised Cardinal Pell over the handling of convicted sex offender and priest Wilfred James Baker, who died in 2014 aged 77 years. Cardinal Pell was a member of the Curia, an advisory body to the archbishop, when they discussed Baker’s extended leave for “therapeutic reasons’’ in June 1989. ­Allegations had previously been made against Baker and counsel assisting submitted that by 1985 there was ample time for discussion about Baker’s conduct to have “done the rounds”.

Cardinal Pell was also present at a Personnel Advisory Board meeting in May 1992 when Baker was appointed parish priest of North Richmond. Counsel assisting submitted that the royal commission should accept Bishop Peter Connors’ evidence that by then all members were aware of allegations that Baker had sex­ually abused a boy in 1978.

Baker was later convicted of indecent assault, gross indecency, indecent assault and buggery.

Counsel assisting submitted that when the PAB, including Cardinal Pell, accepted accused pedophile Nazareno Fasciale’s resignation on the grounds of ill-health in 1993, they engaged in a “cover-up of Fasciale’s conduct”. Fasciale died from cancer in 1996.

The barristers’ submissions on the scandal-plagued Ballarat diocese centre largely on Bishop ­Ronald Mulkearns’ efforts to shield pedophile priests, including Ridsdale, from public exposure, the purposeful ignorance of St Patrick’s superior Christian Brother Paul Nangle and the testimony provided by Cardinal Pell.

The 400-plus page Ballarat submission includes recommendations that the commission find Cardinal Pell was told and dismissed information about a Christian Brother abusing young boys in 1974. Counsel assisting said it supported abuse victim Timothy Green’s evidence that he had told then father Pell at a Ballarat swimming pool that brother Ted Dowlan was “touching little boys”. He alleged the priest ­responded before walking out: “Don’t be ridiculous.’’

“Cardinal Pell recalls having heard suggestions in the early 1970s that Dowlan was behaving in a sexually inappropriate way, but is unable to recall all of the sources of that information,” counsel assisting said.

“Given that evidence, it is plausible that Mr Green also conveyed information of this kind to Cardinal Pell and Cardinal Pell has forgotten about the incident.”

The barristers criticised Cardinal Pell for his apparent inaction regarding Dowlan, submitting the evidence showed he was told by at least one student and one or two priests about Dowlan’s abusing between 1973 and 1975.

They said Mulkearns knew of numerous complaints about Ridsdale’s offending by 1982 and “did nothing to protect children or restrict his movements”.

They said Mulkearns showed disregard for the safety of children as he shifted Ridsdale via the archdiocese’s College of Consultors, which Cardinal Pell sat on from 1977 to 1984. Citing Cardinal Pell’s testimony that it was “unacceptable” for Mulkearns to move Ridsdale knowing the allegations against him, counsel assisting urged broader condemnation of the church leaders who had been involved, including Cardinal Pell.

A spokesman for Cardinal Pell in Rome pointed out the cardinal had responded directly to counsel assisting’s submissions on the royal commission website: “As the royal commission has not yet made findings in these case studies, it is not appropriate, at this time, for parties to comment.”

Submissions from Sam Dugan, counsel for Cardinal Pell, accused counsel assisting of overstating evidence, making gratuitous submissions and relying on conjecture: “There is not a single aspect of that evidence which establishes that (then) father Pell acted inappropriately in any way.”

He said counsel assisting’s submissions that Cardinal Pell should have taken direct action in relation to Searson, including conducting an investigation into the complaints, could not be sustained. He said counsel assisting relied heavily on Archbishop Denis Hart whose experience was largely gained from how the archdiocese functioned under then Archbishop Pell.