Australian Catholic Leader Orders Sex Probe As Youth Day Kicks off, AFP, July 11, 2008

Australian Catholic Leader Orders Sex Probe As Youth Day Kicks off

AFP
July 11, 2008

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6gTR3VbULT_hj_woOSfG7wRnc2A

SYDNEY (AFP) — The official programme for the Catholic church's World Youth Day began Friday but was partly overshadowed by the launch of an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against a disgraced priest.

The leader of the Catholic church in Australia, Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell, ordered an independent, church-appointed panel to investigate the claims after he was accused earlier this week of trying to cover them up.

The Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney

Cardinal Pell said in a statement released late Thursday that he had "formally referred the matters raised this week to an independent consultative panel established under Towards Healing protocols".

The investigation centres on allegations from former religious education teacher Anthony Jones that a priest sexually abused him in 1982 after a swimming session.

In a 2003 letter, obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Pell told Jones an internal report did not support his accusation of attempted aggravated sexual assault by the priest, Father Terence Goodall.

But the internal report had in fact accepted all Jones' allegations.

Pell also told Jones there were no other complaints against Goodall.

But in another letter obtained by the ABC and dated the same day, Pell told a second man he accepted his claim that he had been indecently assaulted by Goodall as an altar boy when he was 10 or 11.

Pell this week said the letter to Jones was "badly worded and a mistake" but denied it was part of a cover up.

He said the investigating panel would report back as soon as possible but the issue cast a pall over the first official event on the World Youth Day calendar, a pilgrimage to Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral.

The pilgrimage was followed by the unveiling of a painting "Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Help of Christians" at the cathedral.

Pell made some remarks about the painting at the unveiling but did not take questions from media.

Green politician Christine Milne said Pell should consider standing down over the claims he mishandled sex abuse allegations.

"I think Cardinal Pell needs to really think about his leadership role in the church in Australia," she told ABC television late Thursday.

"I think he needs to think about whether he's putting his own aspirations in terms of World Youth Day ahead of the church."

World Youth Day is a celebration of Catholic youth that will culminate in Sydney with a mass by Pope Benedict XVI on July 20 expected to draw some 500,000 people.

During his trip to Australia, the pope is expected to make an apology for sexual abuse by predator priests similar to the one he made in the United States earlier this year.