Cardinal Pell unable to fly to Australia for sex abuse inquiry because of pre-existing heart condition

AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

11 December 2015 by Christopher Lamb in Rome

Cardinal George Pell will not travel to Australia next week to give evidence to the country’s royal commission into abuse due to ill health.

A statement from his office said that due to a pre-existing heart condition a cardiologist in Rome has said it is not safe for the 74-year-old cardinal, who is Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy in the Vatican, to make long haul flights.

On Friday the cardinal’s lawyer, Allan Myers, QC, asked the judge leading the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Melbourne for the Australian cardinal to give evidence by video link.

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