AUSTRALIA
The Australian
TESSA AKERMAN
The Archbishops of Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Canberra-Goulbourn have issued a joint statement in support of Cardinal George Pell.
The Archbishops, as well as the Bishop of Broken Bay Peter Comensoli and Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney Bishop Terence Brady have stated Cardinal Pell is “a man of integrity,” who is committed to the truth.
Cardinal Pell has come under fire following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing in Ballarat last month.
The inquiry was told Cardinal Pell tried to bribe a victim of pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to keep quiet and dismissed another abuse victim’s complaint as ridiculous
Abuse survivor Timothy Green told the royal commission he spoke to then Father Pell in 1974 about Christian Brother Edward Dowlan touching boys at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat.
“Father Pell said ‘don’t be ridiculous’ and walked out.”
BISHOPS’ STATEMENT
David Ridsdale, the nephew of Australia’s worst pedophile priest, said that after he told Cardinal Pell in 1993 about the abuse at his uncle’s hands, the Cardinal, a family friend, asked him in a phone call; “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”
The Royal Commission also heard Cardinal Pell was present at a Ballarat diocesan consultors meeting which approved Rdisdale’s transfer from the western Victorian parish of Mortlake where he had offended against children.
The seven Archbishops and Bishops say they know Cardinal Pell well from working with him and that he is committed to the truth and to helping others, particularly those who have been hurt or who are struggling.
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