AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
David Marr
theguardian.com, Tuesday 11 March 2014
Don’t start ringing the bells. The Catholic church is a long way from letting itself be sued like any other church. It knows it can no longer defend a privilege that has saved hundreds of millions of dollars since the child abuse scandal broke decades ago. But it isn’t planning to open its wallet.
One of the great powers of a royal commission is to embarrass. Cardinal Pell and the bishops can see terrible embarrassment looming as the royal commission into institutional response to child sexual abuse turns its sights on the privileged protection of the Catholic church from the courts.
As the gaunt figure of John Ellis took the stand at the commission this week, Pell and the bishops expressed regret once more for past mistakes and made vague undertakings to do things better now. Pell won sympathetic headlines by disowning the ordeal he put Ellis through: “My own view is that the church in Australia should be able to be sued in cases of this kind.”
Ellis had been abused for years as a boy and young man. He had been willing to settle for $100,000 but Pell called in his Melbourne lawyers and $1.5m was spent on fees to block Ellis and confirm the Catholic church in this country doesn’t exist in law, doesn’t employ its priests, isn’t responsible for their crimes and has successfully locked its assets away from victims.
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