THE Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and former Archbishop of
Melbourne, Cardinal George Pell, has acknowledged that complaints
of child sexual abuse had been covered up to protect the RC
Church's name and finances.
Appearing before the Victorian Parliament's inquiry into
institutional handling of child sexual abuse (
News, 24 May), Cardinal Pell said that fear of scandal was one
reason for the cover-up. The "primary motivation" would have been
"to respect the reputation of the [RC] Church", he said; earlier
church leaders had not known "what a horrendous widespread mess we
were sitting on". But he denied that a "culture of abuse" had
existed within the Church.
Strongly denying any personal involvement in the cover-up,
Cardinal Pell said that he was "fully apologetic and absolutely
sorry" for the abuse by clergy. He blamed a predecessor, the late
Archbishop Sir Frank Little, for the cover-up.
The inquiry heard that, in 1993, Little had arranged the removal
from a parish of one paedophile priest - later sentenced five times
for the abuse of children - by making him a "pastor emeritus" on
the grounds of illness, and thanking him for his "good deeds". This
action was "unchristlike", Cardinal Pell agreed.
On becoming Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, Cardinal Pell
established the "Melbourne Re- sponse", the diocese's first formal
process for dealing with abuse. It remains separate from the
national RC "Towards Healing" process, and has been criticised by
victims' groups, who say that it was designed to protect the Church
and limit compensation payments.
Cardinal Pell was the last person to appear before the inquiry,
which is due to report by the end of September.