Pell and cleric at odds on handling of child sex case

By Dan Box
Australian
March 18, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/pell-and-cleric-at-odds-on-handling-of-child-sex-case/story-fngburq5-1226857427197#

CARDINAL George Pell and another senior Catholic cleric have given conflicting accounts of the former archbishop of Sydney's handling of a controversial child-sex abuse case.

The cardinal's former chancellor, Brian Rayner, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he felt sidelined during the litigation and believed the abuse in question had taken place, contrary to what the church argued.

The 2007 case, in which former altar boy John Ellis unsuccessfully sued the Catholic Church over his abuse at the hands of a Sydney priest, is being investigated by the royal commission.

Church documents tendered in evidence show Cardinal Pell subsequently apologised to Mr Ellis, claiming not to have known about his previous offer to settle the claim for a fraction of the $1.5 million the church ultimately spent defending itself.