AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with video]
By Brigid Andersen
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.
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Key points
*Cardinal George Pell apologises for decades of abuse in Melbourne diocese.
*Cardinal Pell admits a systemic cover-up of child abuse within the Church.
*He says former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns destroyed documents relating to abuse cases.
*He says former Melbourne archbishop Frank Little covered up cases of abuse.
*Cardinal Pell says abuse became widespread because the Clergy did not talk about the problem.
*Cardinal Pell has defended the Melbourne Response which he established to deal with abuse cases.
*He defended maximum compensation level of $75,000 for victims of abuse.
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