AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 5 February 2016
Cardinal George Pell is feeling “too sick” to face the Catholic Church’s victims in Australia but he is healthy enough to continue his big job in Rome as one of the Vatican’s top leaders. This Broken Rites article examines some of the background to Pell’s reluctance to re-visit Australia to appear in person at this country’s national child-abuse Royal Commission.
The Royal Commission met on 5 February 2016 to examine whether Cardinal George Pell is prepared to appear in the witness box in Australia later in February to answer questions about how the Catholic Church, historically, has dealt with clergy sexual abuse in two Australian cities — Melbourne and Ballarat. The answer, from Pell’s lawyer, is: “No.”
Since May 2015, the Royal Commission has been holding a series of occasional public hearings to obtain information about the archdiocese of Melbourne (covering the Melbourne metropolitan area) and the diocese of Ballarat (covering the western half of the state of Victoria). The Melbourne inquiry is Case Study 35, while Ballarat is Case Study 28.
George Pell, who was born in Ballarat, was originally a priest in the Ballarat diocese. He was later the archbishop of Melbourne (from 1996 to 2001) and then became the archbishop of Sydney before gaining his current senior role in the Vatican.
During a four-weeks public hearing in November-December 2015, the Royal Commission examined a series of submissions concerning clergy sexual crimes in Melbourne and Ballarat. The Royal Commission heard from victims in Ballarat and Melbourne who alleged that church leaders had been ignoring or concealing these crimes. The Commission also questioned priests from Ballarat and Melbourne who replied to many of the Commission’s questions by uttering the legal strategy: “I do not remember”or “I cannot recall”.
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