AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with audio]
The child abuse Royal Commission has exposed the moral failings of the Sydney Archdiocese in fighting the case brought by former altar boy and abuse victim John Ellis. The outgoing Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, has conceded that he endorsed the overall strategy of the church’s legal team, but he admitted that Mr Ellis was not treated fairly from a Christian point of view and the compensation offers to Mr Ellis were mean and grotesque.
Transcript
MARK COLVIN: The Catholic Church has admitted that a conflict between its own moral values and its legal and financial interests was at the heart of its battle with abuse victim John Ellis, and in the fight between secular and Christian values, it was the law and the money that won.
The Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, told the Royal Commission today that he overcame his own moral doubts to endorse the strategy of the church’s legal team.
That included the tactic of disputing Mr Ellis’s story of abuse in court.
While preparing his departure for the Vatican, Cardinal Pell has spent a second day in the witness box defending the church’s legal position when Mr Ellis tried to sue.
Cardinal Pell admitted that Mr Ellis was not treated fairly from a “Christian point of view” and the compensation offers to him were mean and grotesque.
Emily Bourke reports.
EMILY BOURKE: The moral and the legal positions taken by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney came into sharp focus and then collided at the Royal Commission today.
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