Cardinal George Pell blames church muddler

By Dan Box
Australian
March 25, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/cardinal-george-pell-blames-church-muddler/story-fngburq5-1226863763861#

CARDINAL George Pell has criticised senior Catholic Church clerics, staff and lawyers over their roles in a child sex abuse case during one of his last public appearances before he leaves to take up a senior Vatican appointment.

The former archbishop of Sydney, who was heckled yesterday while giving evidence to the royal commission, now faces the possibility of being recalled during its investigation of his work in a previous role leading the archdiocese of Melbourne.

As he prepares to take up his new role overseeing the Vatican’s finances next Monday, Cardinal Pell described one church employee as “a muddler” whose handling of the original complaint against a Sydney priest was “mistaken” and “deficient”.

His former chancellor Brian Rayner was “a good person” who found his job “completely beyond him and he completely disintegrated”, the cardinal said.