AUSTRALIA
7 News
By Brigid Andersen, ABC
Updated May 27, 2013
Australia’s top-ranking Catholic has admitted to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry that some members of the Church tried to cover up child sexual abuse by other members of the clergy.
Cardinal George Pell told the inquiry he was “fully apologetic and absolutely sorry” about decades of child sex abuse within the Church.
Some members of the packed public gallery wept as Cardinal Pell was forced to answer questions about the Church’s systemic cover-up of cases of rape of children as young as five-years old.
“I’m certainly totally committed to improving the situation. I know the Holy Father is too,” he told the inquiry.
Despite being heckled during parts of the inquiry, Cardinal Pell defended the action the Church had taken action to tackle abuse.
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