AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail
Cardinal George Pell accused of ‘helping to shift Australia’s worst paedophile priest’ from town to town
By AAP and John Carney and Lucy Thackray for Daily Mail Australia
A royal commission has uncovered church documents that reveal Cardinal George Pell helped move Australia’s worst paedophile priest between parishes at the height of his reign of terror.
The former Archbishop of Melbourne, who is now based in The Vatican where he oversees the Catholic Church’s finances, was involved in at least one decision to move pervert priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale, the inquiry heard.
Then Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew Ridsdale had abused boys ‘so he was taken out of there’ and again moved to another parish, the abuse royal commission heard on the opening day of three weeks of hearings in the city devastated by decades of abuse.
Cardinal Pell supported Ridsdale at his first court appearance on child sex offences in 1993, but he has repeatedly denied knowing that any children at all were abused in Ballarat parish when he was working there.
Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said relocating Ridsdale from a Ballarat parish was discussed at a meeting of the bishop’s advisers – the College of Consultors – in September 1982, where Cardinal Pell was present.
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