AUSTRALIA
ABC Ballarat
March 4, 2019
By Charlotte King
Days after he led a prayer for Cardinal George Pell from inside the city’s prison, an Ararat cleric has delivered a stirring homily calling for urgent reform in the Catholic Church.
Ararat’s Father Andrew Hayes told a congregation of about 50 parishioners: “This weekend, as we begin our mass, our Cardinal is in jail”.
“I am so sorry for what the church has done to you … the lifetimes of torment and loss of life,” he said.
“Thank you for coming to mass today, it would have been reasonable to stay home — I am also ashamed, and embarrassed.”
Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, was last year convicted of sexually abusing two choirboys in 1996. He will be sentenced on March 13. An appeal against the conviction has been lodged.
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