AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Jayne Margetts, Michelle Brown, staff
Cardinal George Pell is still too ill to travel from Rome to give evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the inquiry has heard.
His lawyers applied for the 74-year-old to be able to give evidence by audio visual link at hearings of the inquiry dealing with abuse in Ballarat.
Several victims of abuse had stated their opposition to the request.
A two-page medical report was handed up to support the application that a flight to Australia from Rome, where Cardinal Pell oversees the Vatican’s finances, could pose a serious risk to his health.
Allan Myers QC said Cardinal Pell was keen to give evidence to the inquiry.
“The Cardinal’s view is that it’s very important that he give his evidence as soon as may be, while the evidence of others is fresh, and he certainly wants to avoid the appearance that he’s unwilling to give evidence,” Mr Myers told the inquiry.
Access to Cardinal Pell’s medical report was provided at the hearing on the undertaking its details were not publicised.
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