ROME
Cairns Post
Charles Miranda, European Correspondent, in Rome
THE Vatican appears to want to distance itself from the Australian Royal Commission into church child abuse and Cardinal George Pell’s much anticipated appearance at its public hearings starting tomorrow in the Italian capital.
At the time of publication, the Vatican had not decided who or indeed if they would send anyone officially to support Cardinal Pell as he fronts the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, despite the fact he is the Roman Curia’s chief of the secretariat of the economy and effectively the pope’s number 3.
The Vatican’s official mouthpiece and head of the Holy See press office Father Federico Lombardi, who is fluent in multiple languages notably English, would not comment Saturday about Cardinal Pell’s appearance to give evidence nor whether he still enjoyed the support of the Vatican.
Then speaking in Italian he described the questions as “rompipalle”, derogatory slang literally meaning “ball breaker” and said he did not understand what was happening tomorrow before the telephone call was abruptly discontinued.
A Vatican press office colleague of his later suggested there may have been an issue with Fr Lombardi’s mobile telephone and hearing of the questions but she also declined to discuss Cardinal Pell and the royal commission.
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