Anti-abuse Groups Dismiss Australia Cleric Apology

Press TV
March 28, 2014

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/28/356325/antiabuse-groups-reject-cleric-apology/

[with video]

Child rights advocates have dismissed as “hypocritical” an apology from Australia's senior Catholic cleric George Pell over sex abuse in the Church.

Cardinal Pell, who is set to get a job as head of a new Vatican Finance Ministry next week, said on Thursday in his last sermon before leaving Australia for the Holy See that child sexual abuse was a “terrible blight” on the Church.

He also admitted that priests, religious leaders and others linked to the Church had sexually abused those they were expected to protect.

“I apologize once again to the victims and their families for the terrible suffering that has been brought to bear by these crimes,” he added.

Earlier in the day he personally apologized to a former altar boy, John Ellis, who was abused by a pedophile priest.

However, Nicky Davis, a spokeswoman for advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), denounced the apologies as “completely hypocritical.”

“His tone was completely flat, there was no emotion, no humanity there ... that's not how you apologize to someone,” she said, referring to Pell’s apology to Ellis.

Another group called Broken Rites also said the apology would not have any meaning until the Church reopened the files of all victims.

“It's all too late and seriously lacks credibility,” the group’s spokeswoman Chris MacIsaac said.

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals in the US and Europe in the past few years, involving allegations of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests to protect pedophiles and its own reputation.

Reports discovered that more than 4,000 US priests have faced sexual abuse allegations since the 1950s, in cases involving more than 10,000 children.