AUSTRALIA
Press TV (Iran)
[with video]
Child rights advocates have dismissed as “hypocritical” an apology from Australia’s senior Catholic cleric George Pell over sex abuse in the Church.
Cardinal Pell, who is set to get a job as head of a new Vatican Finance Ministry next week, said on Thursday in his last sermon before leaving Australia for the Holy See that child sexual abuse was a “terrible blight” on the Church.
He also admitted that priests, religious leaders and others linked to the Church had sexually abused those they were expected to protect.
“I apologize once again to the victims and their families for the terrible suffering that has been brought to bear by these crimes,” he added.
Earlier in the day he personally apologized to a former altar boy, John Ellis, who was abused by a pedophile priest.
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