Pell 'sorry' over church's handling of sex abuse case

9 News
March 24, 2014

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2014/03/24/13/04/cardinal-george-pell-apologises-over-church-s-handling-of-sex-abuse-case

Cardinal George Pell has apologised and admitted he made mistakes in dealing with the case of a former altar boy who had been abused by a Catholic priest.

Cardinal Pell, however, denied he had ever told Mr Ellis he had been the victim of "legal abuse" after his case made it to the Supreme Court.

Mr Ellis, 52, now a lawyer, told the commission that Cardinal Pell used the term in 2009, five years after losing his court case.

"I am unsure what precisely Mr Ellis meant by 'legal abuse'," he told the commission.

"I did not use the term 'legal abuse'. I did not regard the mere defending the litigation as legal abuse."

Cardinal Pell said that while he endorsed the legal action taken against Mr Ellis, he was not involved in the day-to-day running of the case.

"After recently having correspondence and the transcripts of the hearing drawn to my attention, I realise I should have exercised more regular and stringent oversight of my chancellors," he said.

"I acknowledge and apologise to Mr Ellis for the gross violation and abuse committed by Aidan Duggan, a deceased priest of the Sydney Diocese," Cardinal Pell said in a statement.

"I deeply regret the pain, trauma and emotional damage this abuse has caused to Mr Ellis is.

"Mistakes were made by me and by others in the church that resulted in driving Mr Ellis and the archdiocese apart rather than bringing healing. I acknowledge and regret those mistakes.

"Also certain steps were taken in the litigation that now cause me concern and that I would not repeat. Lessons have been learned," he said.

During his time before the commission, Cardinal Pell also admitted the understanding of Catholic Church leaders in Rome of issues of abuse was "way behind" Australia in the 1990s.

"The attitude of some people in the Vatican was that if accusations were being made against priests, they were being made exclusively or at least predominantly by enemies of the church to make trouble, and therefore they should be dealt with sceptically," he told the commission.

"I think there was more of an inclination to give the benefit of the doubt to the defendant rather than to listen seriously to the complaints."

Cardinal Pell said attitudes in Rome, the global centre of the Catholic Church, did not change until "quite a deal later", when a delegation of American bishops "explained vigorously to the Vatican that it wasn't just the enemies of the church who were doing it, as the Nazis had done and possibly the communists".

"But in fact they were genuine complaints, and good people, people who loved the church, were saying it's not being dealt with well enough," he said.

Dr Pell said attitudes in Australia were "not anything like the same degree".