AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
December 15, 2015
Jane Lee
Cardinal George Pell was worried about his planned appearance at a child abuse royal commission last month, his former housemate says.
Reverend John Walshe told the commission on Tuesday that they had had lunch at Cardinal Pell’s apartment in Rome in November, towards the end of a European holiday.
Father Walshe said that Cardinal Pell told him that he was trying his best to prepare for the upcoming hearing, where he was to give evidence of his handling of child sexual abuse allegations in Ballarat and Melbourne. The commission was “weighing on him” and he was worried about it, Father Walshe said.
Cardinal Pell was expected to be asked about his time as an adviser to former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns, on the movements of priests in the diocese, such as paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.
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