Sex Victims" Parents Tell of Pell's "Sociopathic" Response
By Barney Zwartz
CARDINAL George Pell showed a ''sociopathic lack of empathy, typifying the attitude and response of the Catholic hierarchy'' to parents whose young daughters were repeatedly raped by a priest, the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sex abuse has been told. Anthony Foster told on Friday how they met the cardinal - now Archbishop of Sydney - when he was Melbourne archbishop, in a furniture storage room at a Melbourne presbytery. They were squeezed onto a narrow wooden bench, while he sat in a ''grandiose'' padded leather chair. 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. He expressed no emotion when shown a picture of the Fosters' daughter Emma harming herself - she later killed herself - and said expressionlessly: ''Hmmm, she's changed, hasn't she?''
''What sort of of people did he mix with, what sort of life did he lead, that he thought this comment was appropriate?'' Mr Foster asked. From the start, he was confrontational and told them: ''If you don't like what we are doing, take us to court,'' Mr Foster said. Coincidentally, the inquiry posted on its website on Friday a submission by another victim of the priest, Kevin O'Donnell, who raped the Fosters' daughters. This victim (name withheld) also spoke of Cardinal Pell, saying that meeting him and other church staff was ''unpleasant and distressing'' and describing her experience of the church as ''harsh, cold and uncaring'' from her childhood to her time in a convent to reporting O'Donnell to the police. Another victim, Ian Lawther, whose son was a victim, said that every time Cardinal Pell spoke publicly to defend the Catholic Church, he caused further pain for victims suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. ''[He is] only doing a lot of damage to sufferers.'' He said he had received ''zero'' signs of contrition from the church. ''There needs to be complete accountability. We don't need an organisation that runs and hides behind canon law. There should be one law for all the people in this country.'' Friday was the first time victims themselves gave evidence. Mr Foster, who appeared with his wife, author and advocate Chrissie, and daughters Katie and Aimee, said the sociopathic response was their experience in meeting the cardinal, in watching him discuss their family in the media, and in the fact that neither the cardinal nor his replacement as Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, had tried even once to contact them. Katie Foster is in a wheelchair after being hit by a car when she was drunk. She turned to binge drinking after the abuse though the church had received complaints in 1946, 1958 and 1984 that O'Donnell was a child abuser. The parliamentary committee room was packed, but there was utter silence as Mr Foster said that if after any of those complaints church officials had removed O'Donnell from ministry, ''our daughters and scores of other victims would have been spared their life of torment and the crippling effects''. Although the church accepted, in offering compensation, the girls had been abused, when the case came to court it was ''strenuously defended'', as the church's lawyer Richard Leder had threatened. Mr Foster told the inquiry: ''We fervently hope that you have the strength of character to stand up for the rights of children against the Catholic Church. Victoria could lead the way,'' a theme echoed by each witness.
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