Abuse victims should be able to sue Church, says George Pell

By Eleanor Hall
ABC - World Today
March 24, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2014/s3969967.htm

ELEANOR HALL: Just days before he leaves the country to take up a post at the Vatican, Australia's most senior Catholic cleric today gave evidence before the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse.

The outgoing archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, appeared before the inquiry in Sydney to answer questions about how the archdiocese is handling the case of John Ellis.

Mr Ellis was abused by a priest in Western Sydney in the 1970s and took his complaint to the Church in 2002.

The case ended up before the courts when Mr Ellis rejected an offer of $30,000 and attempted to sue the Church.

The Church vigorously defended and defeated the claim and set a legal precedent that the Church could not be sued.

Our correspondent at the Royal Commission, Emily Bourke, is at the inquiry and joins us now.

Emily, Cardinal George Pell's seniority in the Church alone makes his appearance here extraordinary. I presume the hearing room was packed?

EMILY BOURKE: It certainly was, Eleanor. This is the first opportunity for the Royal Commission and, indeed, the Australian public to hear from the country's most senior Catholic cleric and the timing is crucial because Cardinal Pell takes up this very senior financial management position at the Vatican just next Monday.

His evidence is highly anticipated and he's told the inquiry that he's giving evidence freely. He's not bound by any oath of secrecy.

Now, George Pell was instrumental in setting up the controversial Melbourne Response, which was the forerunner to the Towards Healing process, which the Royal Commission is currently examining.

For the past fortnight the inquiry has been looking at how the Church responded to John Ellis and the evidence so far in this investigation indicates that Cardinal Pell had a hand in directing the way the archdiocese handled Mr Ellis' claim and, in particular, the especially vigorous and drawn-out litigation that came after the Towards Healing process collapsed.

And as head of the Sydney archdiocese, the buck really stopped with Cardinal Pell. He had to sign off on various amounts of money to victims in restitution.

He's admitted that there were mistakes this morning and he's told the inquiry, though, that he left money matters to his chancellor, Monsignor John Usher. And that's prompted questions by the chair of the commission, Justice Peter McClellan.

Here's a bit of that exchange:

GEORGE PELL: I can't remember ever being asked my opinion on how much money might be paid in reparation compensation to a Towards Healing victim. I've thought very carefully about this. I've got no such recollection and certainly in Monsignor Usher's time he handled all those questions.

PETER MCCLELLAN: Cardinal, you as the head of the diocese in Sydney no doubt had an acute concern that people who'd survived abuse by clergy would be justly dealt with?

GEORGE PELL: Absolutely.

PETER MCCLELLAN: Do you say that that concern didn't extend to knowing about monetary negotiations for compensation and whether those monetary amounts were adequate to meet a just need?

GEORGE PELL: I had, until demonstrated otherwise, I had confidence in the person who was doing the job. In many cases they weren't enormous amounts of money. I'm not a micro-manager.

ELEANOR HALL: That's the archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, appearing before the Royal Commission in Sydney today.

Emily, we heard earlier from John Ellis how traumatic and damaging the court case was for him. Did today's evidence make it any clearer just what Cardinal Pell's role was in the Ellis case?

EMILY BOURKE: Well, so far various witnesses have provided almost conflicting accounts, especially around this very vexed legal action.

The lawyers for the Church have said that they were acting on instructions of the Church authority and that their main contact point and the principal instructor was Cardinal Pell's private secretary, Michael Casey.

And Dr Casey has said he was taking his riding instructions from the Cardinal. But he admitted to the inquiry last week that he didn't go back to the Cardinal over each and every step in the litigation process, which became increasingly aggressive.

Other officials from the Church have said that they were taking their directions from the recommendations of the lawyers.

So it's become somewhat of a blame game.

Mr Ellis, for his part, told the inquiry that he believed that Cardinal Pell wasn't fully abreast of what was happening.

But Cardinal Pell in his statement today has said he explicitly endorsed the legal strategy taken by the lawyers but didn't have day-to-day running of the case.

He admitted that it was a hard-fought case, perhaps fought too well, but the measures were disproportionate to the objective and that he should not have rejected the opportunity to mediate with Mr Ellis and he should have exercised more regular and stringent oversight.

But he said he didn't have much of a hand in dealing with the case when it first came to the Church through the Towards Healing scheme. That was handled by John Davoren, who was with the Professional Standards Office.

And here's how Cardinal Pell described that process:

GEORGE PELL: I had a very hands-off approach to that. I did not want to be accused of interfering in that assessment.

What is true at that time, some of that time, Mr Davoren was unwell. He had a bypass. Mr Davoren is a very good man, he worked hard to help the victims, but he was a muddler and sometimes he wasn't logical.

And also I think… if I could put… I don't think it's a misleading brand: his approach to these matters was pre-'96. He didn't seem to have a scrupulous understanding or commitment to exactly following protocols.

ELEANOR HALL: That's Cardinal George Pell before the Royal Commission in Sydney.

Emily, you say that the Cardinal said that perhaps the Church fought the case too well. Did he elaborate on what he meant by that?

EMILY BOURKE: Well, this issue of whether the Church should be allowed to be sued remains a deeply contentious issue.

We've been able to access Cardinal Pell's full statement covering this issue. Up until now we've only had just a small snippet. And in it he says at the time of the litigation, Mr Ellis' lawyers asked who he could sue. The Church lawyers said that there was nobody apart from the named defendants, but as it turned out, those defendants were deemed to be the wrong defendants.

Now, Cardinal Pell said he wasn't aware of that statement being made on behalf of the archdiocese and he also stated that it wasn't his understanding that the Church is protected from any legal action. He says he's seeking clarification on that point.

Cardinal Pell says that the Church should be able to be sued in cases like this and, in every case where such action succeeds, the resources of the Church should be available to the extent necessary to meet any judgement.

Further, he says that the first preference of the archdiocese is to settle the litigation where possible.

ELEANOR HALL: And Emily, can you give us a sense of the reaction to his evidence in the hearing room today?

EMILY BOURKE: Well, it's been mixed. At times there's been applause: for example, when Gail Furness asked for certain documents - this is counsel assisting Gail Furness - asked for certain documents to be provided, specifically around Cardinal Pell's suggestion that certain claims have not been upheld. At other times, there's been some scoffing in the public gallery at remarks made and later clarified by Cardinal Pell.

So it is early days and we are only getting into the early part of the, I guess, the Ellis case, which goes back to 2002. And this did run up until - well, it's still running in some ways - up until 2012. So we've got to hear some evidence to go.

ELEANOR HALL: How much longer is Cardinal Pell expected to be in the hearing room there?

EMILY BOURKE: We understand he'll be giving evidence for all of today and if he runs over or if the various lawyers who represent various parties want to hear more from him, he'll be back on Wednesday.

ELEANOR HALL: Emily Bourke, our reporter there in the Sydney hearing of the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse.