AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
BY MIKE HEDGE AAP NOVEMBER 13, 2013
THE Catholic Church’s “institutional failure” to respond appropriately to child abuse extends to its leader in Australia, Cardinal George Pell, a parliamentary inquiry reports.
But Cardinal Pell says he welcomes the Victorian inquiry’s report and supports many of its recommendations.
The parliamentary inquiry into child abuse took Cardinal Pell to task in its report over his attempt to separate the church as a whole from the actions of senior religious figures it said had “minimalised and trivialised” the issue.
In a swipe at Cardinal Pell’s evidence, its report said that following repeated questioning he agreed some bishops and religious superiors had covered up the issue.
“That is quite different from the whole church … the whole church is not guilty of that,” he told the inquiry.
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