AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with audio]
The man at the centre of the landmark legal case involving the Catholic Church says he’s surprised by the open and personal apology from Cardinal George Pell. John Ellis has told PM that the last fortnight has been exhausting but the royal commission’s scrutiny of the Church’s actions has been meaningful.
Transcript
MARK COLVIN: It’s been an extraordinary week for the man at the centre of the legal case. Now it’s over John Ellis says he was taken aback by the Cardinal’s apology.
He spoke to Emily Bourke.
JOHN ELLIS: Well the last fortnight’s just been totally draining and now that it’s finished, I just feel exhausted is my primary feeling about it.
I think probably what I need to do is just sit back and reflect on some of that. It’s very meaningful to have all of the actions that were taken over those years put under scrutiny and to get some answers for the reasons why things went the way that they did.
And I was a bit surprised at the Cardinal’s apology at the end, and I’m just not sure how I feel about it. It’s better that he’s said he’s sorry than that he didn’t say that, but I just think I need to sit with that.
EMILY BOURKE: What do you think the future is for people like yourself who might be planning on bringing cases to court?
JOHN ELLIS: Well I hope that part of the future is that people don’t need to bring their cases to court, that they would be able to have a gentle and more compassionate process that still delivers justice to all parties, but it’s a very important part of that and this has been our experience over many years, that people need to have the right to bring actions in court if they can’t be sorted out otherwise, and that the Church needs to be told very publicly that it’s not above the law and that it’s subject to the same principles that apply to any other corporation.
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