Parting Thoughts from Cardinal Pell
Sydney Morning Herald
Cardinal George Pell has already said that he is deeply sorry for the Catholic Church's failings in responding to the rape of children by priests. In the corporate blue and grey surrounds of the child sex abuse royal commission's 17th floor hearing rooms in Sydney's CBD next week he may repeat his undertaking to keep striving to make things better. He may declare himself on the side of the victims. There is much to regret in the church's handling of child sex abuse claims, and no doubt Cardinal Pell feels that deeply. A decade ago he and victim John Ellis were on opposite sides of the notorious court case in which the former Baker and McKenzie partner sought damages for sexual abuse by the priest Aidan Duggan which started when he was a 13-year-old altar boy in the Bass Hill parish. The case set a legal precedent that has allowed the Catholic Church in Australia to successfully block victims' damages claims at court since. It established that the church was not a legal entity that could be sued, and that the archbishop could not be sued because he was not in charge of the archdiocese at the time of the abuse. Advertisement Royal commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan is using Mr Ellis' case to explore why the church's stated aims of a ''just and compassionate response'' to victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic clerics only applied if victims chose its ''Towards Healing'' process. Victims who chose to work within the protocol drawn up by the bishops, rather than take their chances at court, became subject to a capped payout that was not disclosed in the written material supplied to them. They were also required to sign a release waiving all rights to compensation. The royal commission is also examining issues of the church's legal liability for the sexual assault of children by clerics, ''including vicarious liability of entities associated with the Catholic Church''. Not before time the church is being subject to unprecedented scrutiny over its willingness to accept responsibility for the grievous wrongs of the past. For good reason the community no longer accepts that the church can be trusted to do the right thing in these matters. The commissioner's impatience and incredulity with some of the testimony of churchmen has at times been apparent. The royal commission appears to be paying close attention to the question of Cardinal Pell's involvement in the Ellis case. On the evidence so far, the cardinal took an unusual interest from the start and took active part in a bumbling and insensitive process that broke the church's own rules on handling such complaints. Mr Ellis has said he would have settled for $100,000 in 2004. The case finished up costing the church $1.5 million, once Cardinal Pell decided to waive costs and make ex gratia payments to Mr Ellis following a personal meeting with the broken plaintiff and his wife in 2009. That was a compassionate act. On the evidence, up until then the conduct of Mr Ellis' matter by the church had been anything but compassionate. The cardinal accepted advice to do nothing about Mr Ellis' claim initially on the incredible grounds that his abuser Duggan, who was by then a decrepit old man, was too demented to respond so the claim lacked ''corroboration''. There is tendered correspondence showing that Cardinal Pell instructed his solicitors to reject Mr Ellis' second offer, to settle before the court case for $750,000 plus costs, even though on Mr Ellis' testimony the cardinal denied knowing of that offer when they met in 2009. In litigation the church chose to contest whether the abuse had even occurred and subjected Mr Ellis to four days of gruelling cross-examination in the witness box. It chose this course even though its own assessor accepted Mr Ellis was telling the truth on the balance of probabilities, and Mr Ellis' claims were not doubted by others advising the cardinal. Next week the cardinal will have the opportunity to tell his side of the story. It will be one of his last public appearances in Australia before he takes up a senior role managing the Vatican's finances. His church's journey in Australia - from the rich reds and purples of ecclesiastical pomp through the blue-grey shades of secular accountability, towards community standards of black and white - still has a way to run. The Ides have it as Lance buddies up It's the Ides of March - the middle day of the month when Brutus and Cassius fulfilled prophecy by leading Roman senators to stab Julius Caesar 44 times in 44 BC. Saturday also marks the official start of the Lance ''Buddy'' Franklin era. Last year Franklin danced with the Greater Western Sydney Giants but took $10 million over nine years to move to the Sydney Swans instead. ''I want success pretty much straight away - that's why I chose Sydney,'' Franklin said in October. Success straight away? On the Ides of March? What could possibly go wrong? While Franklin runs out against the low-ranking Giants, former Swans ruckman Shane Mumford was traded to GWS to make way for him. Mumford can take revenge today. The game is at the Giants' home ground, the Sydney Showground Stadium at Homebush. Buddy is 27 and a tad injury prone. Swans stalwarts admit Franklin can succumb to ''excessive social behaviour'' too. Some have called the Franklin outlay the riskiest in the AFL. But the best crowd ever to see the Giants was about 12,500. If Franklin can go close to filling the 40,000-seat stadium, it would match the A-League derby between Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers and beat the NRL's opener between the Rabbitohs and Roosters. The Herald wishes Franklin good luck.
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