Cardinal Sin a Failure to Act

Herald Sun
November 16, 2012

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/cardinal-sin-a-failure-to-act/story-fndo45r1-1226518571600

CARDINAL George Pell looked more like a politician than a priest this week, ducking and weaving and spinning his answers to lay blame everywhere but in his own backyard.

It's been that refusal of the church and its hierarchy to deal properly and openly with decades of accusations that has led to the widespread public cynicism and criticism it now faces.

Its official response has been minimalist and reluctant, hidden in legalese and spin, all aimed at protecting the reputation of the church first, and helping the victim second.

Pell's public performance shows nothing has changed, and that's not only a sad indictment on the church (not its people, who do good things every day) but a hurtful and unwise approach before the royal commission.

The commission will be broad.

It will run for years. And it will paint the church, as well as other institutions, in a light that many of its followers will find difficult to accept.

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But the church has brought it upon itself largely by not doing everything in its power to help those it has hurt, and by failing to rebuild the trust that has been dented with each new round of accusations.

Pell doesn't understand that. His combative style shows he still believes the church is more an unfair target of a smearing media rather than the home to dozens and dozens of priests who ruthlessly and criminally stole children's futures.

He objected to the wrongdoing involving the Catholic Church being "exaggerated" and being described as "the only cab on the rank".

"One of the reasons why we welcome the royal commission is that this commission will enable those claims to be validated . . . or found to be a significant exaggeration," he said.

Has he not sat in any of these court cases to hear what happened?

How does Pell define "exaggeration"?

His commentary continued into the realm of fantasy.

"We've been unable to convince public opinion for basically the last 20 years," he said, "that, whatever our imperfections in individual cases, we've been serious about this."

That is because church officials have not been serious about it; and that has damaged its reputation, as well as disillusioning many practising Catholics.

That lack of a serious response was highlighted the next day when Professor Patrick Parkinson - whom Pell had cited as a leading authority who had reviewed the church's protocols - came out alleging modern-day cover-ups.

Pell's press conference continued on, a bit like a train crash in slow motion, as he admitted accompanying one priest to court out of "solidarity" unaware of "what a wrong impression it would give to the victims".

He sounded uncaring and looked like an unrepentant politician, and that took away from some of the genuinely good moves the church - and particularly those running parishes at local levels - has made in trying to make amends.

Watching him, I thought of Chrissie Foster.

She could be you or she could be me; a mum in the suburbs wanting the best for her family.

She and her husband chose their local Catholic primary school, where Father Kevin O'Donnell, who is now serving out his time in hell, chose his prey.

Imagine finding an unexplained pair of underpants in your washing basket, or your six-year-old claiming a can of soft drink made you feel funny and drunk, or demanding uniforms reach down close to her ankles.

And then, when it was too late, that those were the warning signs that the sex attacks would begin the moment she left her at the school gate.

Her daughter later took her own life, maimed as she fought demons given to her by the person at school she should have been able to trust most.

Foster is happy to retell her story to the royal commission. She wants some good to come out of so much evil.

We all need to hear her story, too.

Pell has already heard it, but this time he needs to really listen.

It's only one story, but it's no exaggeration.