AUSTRALIA
The Age
June 1, 2013
Chris Goddard
There are 80 lights in the five chandeliers in the Committee Room of the Parliament of Victoria. The windows, ornate mirrors and high ceiling give a sense of light and space. The darkness created by the rape of children, however, is inescapable.
This is where the Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations has been sitting. The committee and its members have grown in stature. They have attempted to illuminate the shadowy world of criminal priests and their accomplices, and to give hope to surviving victims.
It was in this room that Cardinal George Pell spent all last Monday afternoon, for the first time subject to the glare of accountability. Pell was greeted by the committee chairwoman, Georgie Crozier: ”I welcome your eminence.” A survivor muttered: ”I have waited 30 years for this.” Pell introduced his support team, the business manager, lawyer, secretary and media adviser: ”All of them married people with children”, he adds, as if this was central to their job descriptions.
Crozier stressed at the very start that ”the evidence is quite clear, the criminal sexual abuse of children occurred under the watch of the Catholic Church and it was covered up … these facts are not in dispute”.
The battle over words such as ”power” and their meanings, over actions and inaction and their consequences, started immediately. Pell acknowledged that he is one of the better known public faces of the Catholic Church in Australia, but stressed that he had ”very, very limited” powers. Pell attempted to underline the limitations of his authority: ”I am not the Catholic Prime Minister of Australia”, he insisted, although no one had suggested he was. The cardinal explained that, in spite of all his titles, the Catholic Church is ”an interesting example of a flat organisation”. The chairwoman disagreed, stating that ”many witnesses” had described the church as ”a structure of convenience”.
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