AUSTRALIA
CQ News
Geoff Egan | 7th Dec 2015
CARDINAL George Pell was allegedly overheard discussing convicted pedophile priest Gerald Risdale “rooting young boys” in the 1980s – before he was made a bishop.
The witness known as BWE told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse he had overheard a conversation between Father Pell, who was a priest at Ballarat at the time, and Father Frank Madden .
BWE said Father Madden asked Cardinal Pell “How are things going down your way?”.
He said Cardinal Pell replied “I think Gerry has been rooting young boys again”.
Cardinal Pell’s lawyer Sam Duggan suggested BWE must be wrong due to the coarse language.
“That has never been language that Father Pell has ever used,” Mr Duggan said. “It’s simply something he would not say.”
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