AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM
[with audio]
MARK COLVIN: Victorian victims of clerical sexual abuse are sceptical about many of Cardinal Pell’s statements.
They’re still critical of the so-called “Melbourne Response”, which he set to handle complaints in the late 1990s.
And they don’t agree that the church has improved its processes.
Samantha Donovan reports.
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Cardinal Pell confirmed again today that he’d accompanied paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to his court hearings several years ago.
But he said he didn’t realise at the time the impression this would give Ridsdale’s victims.
Melbourne man Stephen Woods is one of those victims. He was 14 when he was raped by the priest. He listened to George Pell’s comments today with interest.
STEPHEN WOODS: He seems to be setting up a narrative that the Catholic Church is now the victim, that they are the ones who are just one of many assaulters in the society and yet I can’t think of any other organisation that has had so many, even though there are many clergy, but they have had so many paedophiles, and of course tens of thousands of victims.
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