AUSTRALIA
The Australian
A VATICAN investigation into claims of child abuse by a Catholic priest has attacked the credibility of the alleged victims and said a decision to offer financial compensation was made “for actuarial reasons and to appear pastorally concerned”.
The findings of the inquiry, which was conducted under the authority of the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, were sent to the alleged victims’ lawyers last month, after one of the two men involved spent more than a decade lobbying the Catholic Church to investigate his case.
The resulting decree, seen by The Australian, provides a powerful and controversial insight into the secretive canon law processes used by the church to respond to claims of child abuse.
Its authors, three Catholic priests appointed by Cardinal Pell, “decided not to see themselves as judges charged with determining the guilt or otherwise” of the priest, the document states.
“What is being tested is the reliability, the credibility of those making the complaints,” it states, despite the fact “such an approach could be seen as subjecting them to more abuse above what they allege they have already suffered”.
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