AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 27, 2014
CARDINAL George Pell fought a child sex-abuse victim through the courts in order to encourage other victims to “think clearly” about suing the Catholic Church, a royal commission has heard.
The former archbishop of Sydney said yesterday he regrets the way the litigation was handled and had been motivated by a desire to protect the church’s trustees, who control its wealth.
During his second full day in the witness box, the cardinal said he had long been concerned that the Australian church might face similar abuse claims to those that had bankrupted several dioceses in North America.
In 2004, he endorsed his lawyers’ decision to dispute whether the victim, John Ellis, had ever been abused by a Sydney priest, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard. This was done despite the cardinal having accepted the fact of the abuse, and the resulting court case was “harmful and painful” to Mr Ellis, he said.
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