Cardinal George Pell ‘more likely to admit mistakes’ ..., by Janet Fife-Yeomans, Australian (March 25, 2014)

Sydney Archdiocese controls $1.236b funds
Church makes $43 million profit a year
Spent $1.5m fighting $100,000 abuse claim

THE Catholic Church’s Sydney Archdiocese controls funds of an incredible $1.236 billion and that doesn’t include its schools and aged care homes.

It is the first time that the massive wealth of the church has been revealed as the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse delves into its finances as it looks at the church’s response to victims.

The archdiocese’s cash reserves are $320 million alone and the church has been making a profit of up to $43 million a year since 2001.

But the commission has been told that instead of settling former altar boy John Ellis’s sexual abuse claim for the $100,000 he requested, it spent $1.5 million fighting him in court. Most claims are settled for between $50,000 and $70,000.

The money maze was unveiled as the archdiocese’s business manager, Danny Casey, gave evidence to the royal commission in Sydney today.

At the end of last year, the archdiocese controlled funds totalling $1.236 billion. That included $810 million in the Catholic Development Fund, which Mr Casey said operated as an “internal treasury” for the archdiocese.

Then there is Procuration Fund with gross assets of $426 million. It is from this fund that sexual abuse claims are settled.

The wealth is controlled by the Archbishop, which has been Cardinal Pell. Since he took over as Sydney archbishop in 2001, the church had increased its net asset base by 86 per cent to $193 million.

Earlier today, the commission was told the Cardinal was more likely to admit he had made mistakes as a result of the work of the royal commission into child sex abuse and the publicity surrounding it, his right-hand man said today.

Monsignor John Usher, who has been chancellor of the Sydney Archdiocese since 2005, said he had noticed that the Cardinal’s attitude had changed “considerably”.

“What changes have you seen in Cardinal Pell’s attitude?” commission chair Justice Peter McClellan asked.

He said that he had seen a change in attitude among other leaders of the Catholic Church in Australia as a result of the discussion engendered by the royal commission, which has now been sitting for six months.

The cardinal yesterday disputed evidence which has been given by Monsignor Usher’s predecessor, Monsignor Brian Rayner, that he had to get the cardinal’s authorisation for any settlements for the victims of sex abuse under the church’s Towards Healing protocol.

Monsignor Usher said today that Cardinal Pell had told him: “Just get on with the job.”

He said he had not been required to get approval from the Cardinal for offers of assistance to victims but he did not know what had happened before his arrival.

“I cannot make any comment on what my predecessor Father Brian ... was required to do before my time,” he said.

Cardinal Pell will be back in the witness box tomorrow after his official farewell from the Sydney Archdiocese today before he moves into a top role at the Vatican.