Australian Cardinal George Pell, now a top adviser to Pope Francis, testified in a landmark clergy sex abuse inquiry that the Catholic Church made “enormous mistakes” in trying to deal with the scandal.
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Rome: The Pope may accept Cardinal George Pell’s enforced resignation in June, if evidence to Australia’s Royal Commission links him to the relocation of priests suspected of paedophilia, “Vaticanista” journalists believe.
The decision to allow Pell to testify via video has been strongly criticized by abuse victims, and a crowdfunding effort in Australia enabled some 15 of them to travel to Italy to be present in the hotel conference room with Pell. “A catastrophe for the victims and a catastrophe for the church”, Cardinal Pell said on the handling of pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale by Bishop Ronald Mulkearns.
Corriere said it was “difficult to imagine” that the interview would not have touched on the cardinal’s video evidence to the Commission which took place late Sunday night, Rome time.
Pell has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, and has apologized to victims for what he called the “profoundly evil” actions of priests who raped and molested children.
Pell said several times that he was aware of rumors and complaints against pedophile clergy when he was a young priest in the 1970s, but that Church superiors tended to give priests the benefit of the doubt, something he acknowledged was wrong.
Cardinal Pell denies any wrongdoing.
The Sydney-based audience watching the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse cried out in outrage when Cardinal Pell referred to Risdale’s indisgressions as “a sad story” that “wasn’t of much interest” to him.
Pell said he could not recall if he had asked the bishop why Risdale was transferred with “somewhat unusual” frequency.
“I am not here to defend the indefensible”, Pell said to start his testimony.
He also admitted the Church had a “predisposition not to believe” victims who complained.
David Ridsdale, a victim and nephew of the now dead priest, said it was good to hear Pell use the word “catastrophe”.
The admission in testimony at an extraordinary public hearing of an Australian investigative commission was made just a few blocks from the Vatican.
Last year, Australia’s bishops rallied behind Pell, calling him in a joint statement “a man of integrity who is committed to the truth”.
“We need the Vatican to stand up and take responsibility rather than hide behind legal processes and please help us heal the future”, David Ridsdale, one of the abuse victims, told reporters as he entered the hotel.
Cardinal Pell is giving evidence via video link from Rome because he’s too ill to fly to Australia.
“Actions are another”, he said, in calling for a church-funded compensation scheme that addresses the fact that many survivors are too traumatized by their abuse to support themselves financially.
He expressed his hope that the coming days “will eventually lead to healing for everyone”, and said he had tied a yellow ribbon to the fence of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes inside the Vatican Gardens as a sign of solidarity with the “Loud Fence” initiative, which was launched in Ballarat to support abuse survivors.
Cardinal Pell is speaking before observers from a Rome hotel and proceedings will be streamed live to the Royal Commission’s hearing rooms in Sydney and Ballarat Town Hall, and will also be viewable online.
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“I nodded, got no recognition, nothing”, Ridsdale said.
