ROME
Sydney Morning Herald
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
Cardinal George Pell was aware of the existence of clerical sexual abuse in the early 1970s but failed to recognise widespread offending when he was a junior priest in Ballarat, despite gossip that Christian Brothers there were assaulting children.
Cardinal Pell gave his long-awaited evidence into his knowledge of alleged sexual offences in Ballarat to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by video link from Rome on Monday.
In a hearing expected to last four days, Cardinal Pell told the commission that abuse by Catholic clergy was “on the radar” in the 1970s due to offending by Monsignor John Day, who died in 1978.
The commission heard a 1971 police investigation found that Monsignor Day had molested children in Victoria over 13 years.
Cardinal Pell told the commission Monsignor Day’s case made him aware of sexual abuse among clergy but he did not recognise signs of abuse among Christian Brothers in Ballarat, where he was assistant parish priest from 1973-83.
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