AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with video]
By Samantha Donovan, Ashley Hall and Alison Caldwell
The father of two girls who were abused by a Catholic priest says apologies by Australia’s most senior Catholic, George Pell, are meaningless unless they are followed up with actions.
Yesterday Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse that he was “fully apologetic and absolutely sorry” about decades of sexual abuse within the church.
During his evidence he admitted the fear of scandal led to the cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Church.
During sometimes tense exchanges, Cardinal Pell insisted individuals were to blame for what had happened, not the Church structure itself.
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