AUSTRALIA
The Australian
THE Catholic Church’s “institutional failure” to respond appropriately to child abuse extends from parish priests to its leader in Australia, Cardinal George Pell.
The Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse took Cardinal Pell to task in its report over his attempt to separate the church as a whole from the actions of senior religious figures it said had “minimalised and trivialised” the issue.
In a swipe at Cardinal Pell’s evidence, its report said that following repeated questioning he agreed some bishops and religious superiors had covered up the issue.
“That is quite different from the whole church … the whole church is not guilty of that,” he told the inquiry.
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