AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Cardinal George Pell has confessed to creation of false documents and ‘reprehensible’ cover-ups of child sex abuse
MATT JOHNSTON, MICHELLE AINSWORTH From: Herald Sun May 27, 2013
CARDINAL George Pell has confessed false documents were created and priests took part in “reprehensible” cover-ups of child sexual abuse.
The most prominent Catholic in Australia was grilled by a Victorian parliamentary committee for 4 1/2 hours about systemic failings by the church to deal with abuse.
Cardinal Pell said the fear of scandals drove much of the reaction to rampant abuse in the 1970s and ’80s, but that a concern about money was also involved.
“I am fully apologetic and absolutely sorry,” he said.
“I would agree that we’ve been slow to address the anguish of the victims and dealt with it very imperfectly,” the cardinal said.
In a victory for victims, Cardinal Pell said he would ask the Vatican to send all documents it holds on Victorian sex abuse accusations to the inquiry – a promise he had also made to the federal royal commission into abuse.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.