Pell Apologises to John Ellis, Denies Church Interests Are above Those of Abuse Victims

ABC News
March 27, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-27/pell-apologises-to-john-ellis-denies-church/5350382?section=vic

MARK COLVIN: The Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell finished giving evidence at the child abuse royal commission today. But despite his new job in the Vatican, it was au revoir rather than adieu.

And before he went, the Cardinal issued a personal and public apology to the abuse victim John Ellis whose case has dominated events at the commission this week.

It was the Archbishop's third day trying to explain how and why the Church took such a hard line over so many years against Mr Ellis.

Despite the apology, Cardinal Pell defended the Church's decision to take "every proper legal defence". And he denied that the Sydney Archdiocese had put its own financial interests ahead of Mr Ellis's needs.

The commission has also been told that without significant changes to the Church's legal structure and insurance policies, abuse victims will continue to face a labyrinthine process of trying to seek justice through the courts and compensation from the Church.

Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: Before the John Ellis case ended up in court where it failed so spectacularly, Cardinal George Pell was out of the loop.

He said he didn't really know how his office, the Sydney Archdiocese, had been managing Mr Ellis's claim through the Church's Towards Healing program.

Being out of the loop, meant he didn't weigh up the possibility of a $100,000 settlement with Mr Ellis against the more than $1 million the Church ended up spending on the Ellis case.

GEORGE PELL: I can't remember detailed discussions about the amount of money, but I can't remember anybody disputing that we were facing a claim for millions.

In the light of what John said he, now, you know, he would have settled for $100,000 without any release. Now I didn't know that.

EMILY BOURKE: The Sydney Archdiocese has paid out $8 million on 82 victims' claims since Cardinal Pell came to Sydney 2001.

The royal commission was told that John Ellis was typical of many victims who approach the Church - a devout practising Catholic struggling with the trauma of years of abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest. And he was a Catholic in crisis.

But according to Cardinal Pell, John Ellis was different.

GEORGE PELL: But he's also highly intelligent, very well educated and very - all this is to his credit - and in a very significant position.

MARIA GERACE: I'm sure you don't intend to make the comment in the manner in which you've done. I don't think you intend, Cardinal, to suggest that other people who walk through the doors of Towards Healing are not intelligent.

GEORGE PELL: I think I'm being taken a little out of context. In answer to your suggestion that Mr Ellis was exactly the same as other victims or survivors; all of them are different. These are the ways he is different.

EMILY BOURKE: The lawyer representing Mr Ellis at the inquiry is Maria Gerace.

MARIA GERACE: In Mr Ellis's case, would you agree that the main mistake was putting the financial or other interests of the Church equal to or ahead of the interests of John Ellis?

GEORGE PELL: No, I wouldn't agree with that. Always, we, however imperfectly, we recognised the priority of the needs of the victim. We did that.

MARIA GERACE: Would you agree, Cardinal, that the interests of the Church should never be equal to or ahead of the interests of an abuse victim?

GEORGE PELL: I agree with that.

EMILY BOURKE: Ms Gerace asked Cardinal Pell if the legal obstacles Mr Ellis faced more than a decade ago are likely to continue.

MARIA GERACE: So we get to the very labyrinthine situation where victims find it very difficult to identify who to sue and when, do you agree with that Cardinal?

GEORGE PELL: Not in every case, but in many cases.

MARIA GERACE: And would you agree that a much simpler solution needs to be given to victims as to who they can sue and when?

GEORGE PELL: I am on record as saying that.

MARIA GERACE: Because if the present situation or the situation as it was in Ellis continues, and the Church runs technical defences where key players are dead or otherwise impugned, that would lead to a situation of just bad luck for the victims, wouldn't it?

GEORGE PELL: I am in favour of clarification of the law, provided it runs across all institutions. Whatever the legal situation, we, I'm tempted to say always but generally, meet our responsibilities with some level of payments.

We acknowledge the moral responsibility, even when we don't accept the legal principal of vicarious liability.

EMILY BOURKE: There are still questions about the adequacy of the Church's response to abuse victims.

And Justice Peter McClellan is keen for Cardinal Pell to return to the inquiry.

PETER MCCLELLAN: Do you understand that we will need to look at the Melbourne situation later in the work of the commission?

GEORGE PELL: I do, your Honour.

PETER MCCLELLAN: Do I assume that, at a mutually convenient time, we'll be able to talk to you again about those matters?

GEORGE PELL: I would certainly endeavour to do that, try to cooperate fully.

PETER MCCLELLAN: Well I think we might, at an early date, try and make contact with whoever is responsible for your diary going forward to make sure we can reach a mutually convenient date. Do you understand?

GEORGE PELL: Thank you, thank you.

EMILY BOURKE: But before the inquiry concluded, Cardinal Pell offered this statement to Mr Ellis who was sitting in the front row of the hearing room.

GEORGE PELL: I want to say to Mr Ellis that we failed in many ways, some ways inadvertently, in our moral and pastoral responsibilities to him. I want to acknowledge his suffering and the impact of this terrible affair on his life. As the then archbishop, I have to take ultimate responsibility and this I do.

And at the end of this gruelling appearance for both of us at this royal commission, I want publically to say sorry to him for the hurt caused him by the mistakes made and admitted by me and some of my Archdiocesan personnel during the course of the Towards Healing process and litigation.

EMILY BOURKE: Cardinal Pell takes up a new senior job in Rome next week, managing the finances of the Vatican.

Cardinal Pell's track-record of managing the Church's money in Australia may prove an interesting fit with the pontiff's stated mission of creating a "poor Church for the poor".

MARK COLVIN: Emily Bourke.