Pell Showed No Empathy, Vic Inquiry Hears
By Steve Lillebuen
Australia's most senior Catholic showed a "sociopathic lack of empathy" in dealing with victims who were raped by clergy, an inquiry has heard. Cardinal George Pell, current Archbishop of Sydney, had tried to compel victims into silence when confronted with evidence of wrongdoing by parish priests, the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse was told on Friday. Anthony Foster recalled meeting Cardinal Pell to discuss a priest who had repeatedly raped two of his daughters when they were at primary school. He told the inquiry that Cardinal Pell, then the Archbishop of Melbourne, had told him, "If you don't like what we're doing, take us to court," and did not appear to be distressed by the incidents. "In our interactions with the now-Cardinal Archbishop Pell, we experienced a sociopathic lack of empathy, typifying the attitude and responses of the church hierarchy," Mr Foster said. Mr Foster's daughters, Emma and Katie, were repeatedly raped by the late Father Kevin O'Donnell in the 1980s and 1990s when they were at Sacred Heart Primary School in Oakleigh. But the church was already aware that O'Donnell had been abusing children in 1946, 1958 and 1984 and failed to take any action, he said. "Here are glaring examples of crimes that should have been reported to the police ... If they had been, Emma and Katie and scores of other victims would not have been assaulted by O'Donnell," Mr Foster told the Family and Community Development Committee. Fr O'Donnell, who is referred to by a lawyer as a "two-a-day-man" in the Fosters' written submission to the inquiry, was charged with sex offences occurring over a 30-year period, pleaded guilty, and later died. Mr Foster said his daughter Emma had turned to drugs and took her own life while Katie had been hit by a car while binge drinking and still needs 24-hour care for permanent disabilities. His third daughter, Aimee, told the inquiry that she still fantasises about what life would have been like if her two sisters hadn't been sexually abused. The church later offered the Fosters $50,000, then claimed the assaults never occurred, and finally settled for a higher undisclosed sum, the inquiry heard. Mr Foster called for the vast wealth of the church to be accessible to victims, since current payments for victims were far below those that would be achieved in civil proceedings. His written submission also urged the committee to call Victorian Governor Alex Chernov to give evidence on why compensation payments were capped when he was head of a compensation panel. "Was Mr Chernov happy with this treatment of church victims?" the submission said. The Fosters were the first victims to give evidence at the inquiry after fighting for a hearing for years. Other victims on Friday criticised the church's internal handling of abuse, including moving pedophile priests from parish to parish. Mairead Ashcroft told the inquiry she was abused as a child by Brother Bernard Hartman and had even received a letter of apology from him, but the church later said there was no record of her complaint. She has spent years suffering post-traumatic stress and fearing her experience as a sex abuse victim would change her. "I believed that I would grow up to be an abuser," she said. Hearings will resume on Monday.
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