Jeff Kennett Warned Pell to Deal with Abuse

By Josh Gordon, Catherine Armitage
WA Today
March 28, 2014

http://www.watoday.com.au/national/jeff-kennett-warned-pell-to-deal-with-abuse-20140327-35lrw.html

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett says he bluntly warned Cardinal George Pell in the 90s to resolve allegations of child sexual abuse. Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui

Jeff Kennett has confirmed he bluntly warned Cardinal George Pell in the 1990s to resolve allegations of child sexual abuse or possibly face a royal commission.

The former premier said he recalled telling the cardinal to deal with abuse complaints or face significant consequences for the church. But Mr Kennett said he had made no judgment on the adequacy of the response at the time.

''I was reassured that George said 'yes', he'd get stuck into it,'' Mr Kennett said. ''A couple of months later I was told that he had put together a response … and I just assumed that, right, he is on top of it and it's not for me to sit in judgment … of whether the response was adequate or not.''

Cardinal Pell this week admitted he wanted to avoid big damages claims. As a result, he set up the ''Melbourne Response'' to deal with complaints, which included a $50,000 cap on payouts.

He said he set up the response in 1996 after Mr Kennett told him: ''Now you clean this thing up and there won't be a royal commission.''

In his last comment before the child sex abuse royal commission, Cardinal Pell apologised to the lawyer John Ellis for ''the hurt caused him by the mistakes made, admitted by me and my archdiocesan personnel''. But he could not bring himself to look at the frail and exhausted Mr Ellis.

On Monday the cardinal takes up a new position in charge of the Vatican finances in Rome. He was due to speak to the faithful at a Mass at St Mary's Cathedral within a few hours. So this was, in its way, a farewell to the Australian public.

But his request to make a statement from the witness box on Mr Ellis' tragic case - ''Might I say a few words in conclusion, have permission to, please?'' - was refused by commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan.

''I mean no disrespect, Cardinal, but everyone should be treated the same in giving evidence before the commission'', the judge said.

The evidence has been that the church's handling of Mr Ellis' complaint about abuse he suffered from a priest in the Sydney archdiocese from aged 13 on into adulthood caused him harm and suffering and left him broken mentally and financially. He had been a law firm partner on $300,000 a year when his life began to unravel.

Mr Ellis' counsel Maria Gerace had earlier put it to Cardinal Pell that Mr Ellis had still been a devout Catholic when he approached the church with his complaint in 2002. It was important to him that the church believed him, she said. Instead the church refused offers to settle and chose to dispute in court whether the abuse had occurred.

It was decided that the cardinal could make a final comment if he was asked a specific question by the church's legal counsel.

In response to that question he said he wanted to acknowledge to Mr Ellis that ''we failed him in many ways'', in ''our moral and pastoral responsibilities to him''.

''As then the archbishop I have to take ultimate responsibility and this I do.''

It was, as he said, ''the end of this gruelling appearance for both of us''. Justice McClellan then checked that he would make himself available for further hearings into the Melbourne Response. Cardinal Pell replied that he would do his best to co-operate.

Mr Ellis declined to speak to the media except to say he was exhausted and had to rush off to prepare for mediation on behalf of a client. He works as a lawyer for victims of sexual abuse.