Inquiry Bells Toll for Pell

SBS
March 6, 2014

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/03/07/inquiry-bells-toll-pell

The man who will control the Vatican's purse strings, Cardinal George Pell cut his financial teeth by bean counting when it came to compensating Australian victims of Catholic Church child sex abuse.

That's the harsh hypothesis the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will test at a public hearing opening in Sydney on Monday.

It is looking at the response of the Catholic Church to the complaint of child sexual abuse made by John Ellis.

Ellis famously started civil action in 2004 against the church and Dr Pell over abuse he suffered as an altar boy at the hands of priest Aidan Duggan in the Sydney parish of Bass Hill from 1974 to 1979.

Duggan died without assets so Ellis brought a common law complaint against Archbishop of Sydney George Pell and the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church.

The trust, set up under a 1936 NSW act, holds all the church's multi-billion dollar property assets.

In 2005 a Supreme Court decided Pell could not be sued because he was not in charge when the abuse happened but it said Ellis could pursue the trustees.

That finding went to the Court of Appeals, with Ellis asking the decision be overturned and Pell asking that the decision on the trustees be rejected.

The archbishop won on both counts, the court upheld the decision he could not be sued and also found that the trust could not be held liable for child sex abuse.

John Ellis was ordered to pay costs but the Catholic Church waived them and made him an ex-gratia payment as redress for the abuse. It never disputed his abuse allegation.

In 2007 when the appeal court judgment was handed down headlines shouted "church immunity" and stories summed up the legal Catch 22s - priests have a contract with God not the church, which does not exist as a legal entity.

And of course despite Billy Connolly's Australian fantasy, The Man Who Sued God, there's no point going down that path. It's also pointless suing a priest who has a vow of poverty.

As church spokespeople keep reminding us - the law is the law and that is not George Pell's fault.

However Australia's most senior churchman has cemented a reputation for frequently using the so-called Ellis defence when abuse survivors come forward.

In summary, abuse victims in his archdiocese were reportedly told: "Go to court and you may get nothing, you are better settling in the church system."

Lawyers say the argument is used to keep abuse redress payments low.

The church system called Towards Healing deals with abuse complainants internally.

It has the added bonus of being secretive so institutional reputation remains intact.

The chair of the Royal Commission, Justice Peter McClellan continually questions the lack of transparency.

Because of the commission's public hearings the country now knows Towards Healing has been applied unevenly and is bypassed by some church bodies.

It is also known that settlements vary greatly and in many cases have been far lower than what might be awarded in a civil claim.

When Towards Healing was established in 1996 in response to an avalanche of abuse claims it had a pastoral focus.

The commission has heard the pastoral intent can be swamped when Catholic Church Insurances Ltd are involved.

So essentially abuse victims can feel like plaintiffs trapped in a system controlled by a defendant determined to keep costs down.

No surprise then that Towards Healing and the so called Ellis defence are up for scrutiny from Monday.

The church argues there is no such thing as the Ellis defence. Church spokespeople say church officials and entities responsible for abuse or negligence can be and are sued.

Cynics might see a subtle casuistry in that argument because the assets of the entity, a school, church, home are probably part of the trust.

When it comes to the handling of abuse claims Cardinal Pell is not only famous for the Ellis defence.

In 1996 as Archbishop in Melbourne when the rest of the church was still talking about Towards Healing, he set up a redress scheme known as the Melbourne response.

The diocese, alarmed at the rising tide of complaints, wanted to limit financial fall-out.

Payments were capped at $75,000. Towards Healing theoretically has no cap.

The Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse criticised the Melbourne response for being overly legalistic and re-traumatising victims.

Fans of George Pell say he gets things done, detractors say he lacks empathy for those who have suffered at the hands of the institution whose goods he staunchly defends.

At the end of March, not long after his appearance in the witness stand in Sydney he heads for Rome as Prefect for the new Secretariat for the Economy at the Holy See and the Vatican State. It is a powerful position.

The secretariat he heads will have authority over all economic and administrative activities within the Holy See.

Pope Francis is said to be looking for someone who can cut through the complicated labyrinth of scandal-ridden financial dealings, remain unfazed by dissenters and bring transparency to the Vatican city state's economy.

Maybe two out of three ain't bad.