AUSTRALIA
The Raw Story
By Agence France-Presse
Friday, March 28, 2014
Child rights advocates on Friday rejected an apology from Australia’s top Catholic cleric George Pell over sex abuse in the Church, saying it was “hypocritical” and lacked credibility.
Cardinal Pell, who takes up a high-powered job as head of a new Vatican finance ministry next week after being hand picked by Pope Francis, said child sexual abuse was a “terrible blight” on the Church.
In his last sermon before leaving Australia for the Holy See, he acknowledged priests, religious leaders and others linked to the Church had abused those they were supposed to protect.
“I apologise once again to the victims and their families for the terrible suffering that has been brought to bear by these crimes,” he said from the pulpit of Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral at a thanksgiving mass on Thursday night.
It followed Pell’s appearance earlier that day at a royal commission into child sex abuse, when he personally apologised to a former alter boy, John Ellis, who fell prey to a paedophile priest.
A spokeswoman for advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Nicky Davis, said the apologies were “completely hypocritical” and Pell showed no emotion when addressing Ellis.
“His tone was completely flat, there was no emotion, no humanity there … that’s not how you apologise to someone,” she said.
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