AUSTRALIA
The Age
March 18, 2014
Mark Russel
Gerald Ridsdale, one of Australia’s worst paedophile priests, told one of his victims: “It was the Lord’s work”, a court has heard.
Another victim said his belief that the Catholic Church hierarchy had known what Ridsdale and other priests were doing was reinforced by Cardinal George Pell’s evidence to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse last year.
Dr Pell told the inquiry he had only recently discovered that former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns had destroyed documents relating to sexual abuse allegations.
Bishop Mulkearns was responsible for shifting Ridsdale and several other priests around parishes after concerns were raised by families.
Dr Pell, who has been been appointed the Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See, one of the Vatican’s most senior roles responsible for reforming its administration and finances, lived with Ridsdale at a Ballarat presbytery in the early 1970s but said he was not a close friend.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.