But various circumstances have combined to make the event headline news: Not only is Pell the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to testify on the scandal, and in Rome, but his testimony came just before the movie “Spotlight”, about The Boston Globe’s explosive investigation of clergy abuse more than a decade ago, won the Academy Award for best picture of the year.
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Cardinal George Pell on Tuesday – his second day of evidence to the child abuse royal commission – said he did not know about it even though by then he was privy to the “scandalous” rumours about Ridsdale when he was in Ballarat in the 70s.
In 1977 Pell became a consulter, someone who gave advice on the placement of priests, to Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns.
Commissioner Peter McClellan pressed Pell repeatedly about his assertions that he knew nothing of incidents involving one priest, Father Gerald Ridsdale, who was later convicted of 138 offences against more than 50 children in Australia.
Cardinal Pell was questioned extensively over whether or not he knew about Ridsdale’s offending when he was being moved between different parishes and roles within the church.
The cardinal said Bishop Mulkearns’ actions were “a catastrophe for victims and the church”.
Cardinal Pell was asked about a handwritten note relating to a council meeting for the diocese of Ballarat at the Royal Commission into child abuse.
Dowlan was sentenced last year to six years in jail for the abuse of around 20 boys.
“Given that it was common knowledge by many people why would he choose to deceive you?”
Pell rejected an accusation made by the lead counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, that his answers were created to remove his own responsibility for Ridsdale’s crimes.
Ms Furness also asked Cardinal Pell about Ridsdale’s time in Mortlake in the 1980s, specifically about the case of abuse survivor Paul Levey, who was sent to live with Ridsdale aged 14 in 1982.
“That is stated very… broadly”.
“I would agree that it was known to all the people whom you’ve mentioned and they do constitute a significant number”, the cardinal replied.
In December, former Brisbane Bishop Brian Finnigan told a private hearing the he knew a boy was living at the presbytery with Ridsdale, but told the public hearing he only found out later. A group of Australian survivors of priestly sex abuse and their relatives are i…
On the first day of the Royal Commission hearing, the cardinal said that the Catholic Church had made “enormous mistakes” in dealing with claims of sexual abuse.
Overall, Pell said such failures were personal rather than institutional mistakes.
“I knew nothing about his pedophilia”.
“I knew nothing about his paedophilia, I knew he was a somewhat hard person and I knew, obviously, that he had been shifted around quite a bit”, Cardinal Pell said.
“It’s a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me”, he responded.
A group of victims has flown to Rome to hear his testimony, which will be given from a hotel function room.
“To suggest as you have repeatedly that knowledge about Ridsdale was secret is just not true”, Ms Furness told Cardinal Pell.
Pell conceded again in the latest session that the church had made grave errors in its handling of abuse.
The inquiry is now focused on the town of Ballarat in the state of Victoria, where Pell grew up and worked, and how the church dealt with complaints, many dating back to the 1970s, against the Catholic clergy.
“It probably would be possible to imagine a greater deception, but it’s a gross deception”, Cardinal Pell told the Sydney inquiry via videolink from a Rome hotel.
Speaking to an Australian commission investigating the church’s response to abuse, Pell – who had previously been archbishop in Sydney – also said that during the 1970s he was “very strongly inclined to accept the denial” of a priest accused of abuse.
“I’m not here to defend the indefensible”, he said in evidence broadcast to the full room of abuse survivors, journalists and supporters of the Church.
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Pell met with Francis on Monday, the day after his opening testimony, which is expected to continue over the next few days.
