Sex Abuse Sinister and Serious: Cardinal

By Jared Owens
The Australian
July 28, 2012

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/sex-abuse-sinister-and-serious-cardinal/story-e6frg6nf-1226437126289

CARDINAL George Pell last night issued a statement condemning child sex abuse, following the apparent suicide of a 45-year-old man who was repeatedly abused as a teenager by a priest.

Police yesterday discovered John Pirona's remains in his car at Tomago, outside Newcastle, five days after he left a note for his wife, Tracey, and disappeared.

Mr Pirona, a firefighter, was repeatedly assaulted by a priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in 1979, when he was aged 13.

The NSW courts have established he was sexually assaulted years after the school's principal and Maitland-Newcastle bishop Leo Clarke, now deceased, became aware the priest had assaulted other boys.

The church has accepted Mr Pirona's abuser also assaulted 39 others at Newcastle's St Pius X School.

The priest, one of three Maitland-Newcastle pedophiles acknowledged by the church, cannot be named because he is facing further charges.

The most influential people in Sport

At the end of the note to his wife, Mr Pirona had scrawled the words: "Too much pain."

In his statement last night, Australia's most senior Catholic described sexual abuse as "a sinister and serious problem".

"We acknowledge the pain that victims and their families have experienced and continue to experience, and extend our regret and sincere sympathy to them. We continue to try to the best of our ability to assist them," the Archbishop of Sydney wrote.

"We recognise that there have been failures and we continue to work to refine and improve our manner of responding to victims and the allegations and concerns they bring forward."

But Dr Pell rejected the need for a judicial inquiry into abuse. "I cannot see the need for a state-wide royal commission at this time but if there was one, the Catholic Church authorities would co-operate fully."

Dr Pell said he supported the investigation of alleged abuse by independent inquiries "of some sort" and "sometimes local situations as in Armidale require an inquiry".

The Armidale situation involves a former priest - Father F - who allegedly confessed to abusing at least five altar boys, aged 10 and 11, in the Armidale diocese during the early 1980s.

His confessions were not passed on to police. A NSW police operation is gathering evidence from a number of families of Father F's alleged victims.