George Pell Tells Inquiry He Took Claims from Victims" Groups "with a Grain of Salt"

By Melissa Davey
The Guardian
August 21, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/21/george-pell-tells-inquiry-he-took-claims-from-victims-groups-with-a-grain-of-salt

Cardinal George Pell giving evidence at the royal commission in Sydney before he left for Rome. Photograph: AAP/Royal Commission into institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Cardinal George Pell has told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse that he originally took comments about the extent of abuse within the church from victim rights groups “with a grain of salt”.

He was facing questions via videolink in Rome about the Melbourne Response, a scheme he introduced to the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne in 1996 to investigate sex abuse claims.

He introduced the scheme in 1996 because dozens of sexual abuse complaints had come to the attention of the church, putting it under great pressure, he said.

It led to him appointing an independent commissioner, lawyer Peter O’Callaghan, to investigate complaints and interview witnesses, Pell, now the financial controller of the Vatican, said.

Counsel assisting, Gail Furness, asked, “Was there any work that you did or you instructed to be done to come to a view as to how many complainants there may be out there who wished to come forward to the independent commissioner?”

Pell replied: “I was aware of a report in the newspapers and of course through my eventual meetings at groups of survivors and victims that was brought home to me very clear, and there were groups such as Broken Rites that were very active.

“Well, with some of those groups I took what they said with a grain of salt. But nonetheless there was evidence something needed to be done to deal with the suffering.”

He also said while he was aware of evidence given by witness Paul Hersbach to the commission on Monday – who told of horrific abuse suffered by his father, his uncle and himself at the hands of Father Victor Rubeo – he had not read his witness statement.

“Did you view his evidence, Cardinal?” Hersbach’s lawyer, Sean Cash, asked.

“No I didn’t. I have a job here in Rome,” Pell replied, to gasps and sniggers from the public gallery.

Cash also challenged Pell on comments he made to counsel assisting, Gail Furness, where he compared sex abuse within the church to a truck driver picking up a female passenger and molesting her while on the job.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for the leadership of that company to be held responsible,” Pell said.

But Cash challenged that a church was not a trucking company.

“This was an organisation of the highest integrity, one which you would expect would conduct itself in keeping with the teachings of Jesus Christ, that’s right?” Cash said.

Royal commission chair, Justice Peter McClellan, also questioned Pell on the comments.

“When a priest, through the act of the parish or in any other way, gains access to a child who comes to the church with a parents … that is quite different to the relationship between the truck driver and the casual passenger, isn’t it?” McClellan said.

Pell replied: “Yes, I would certainly concede that.”

Earlier in the hearing, Pell had defended the compensation scheme provided by the Melbourne archdiocese to child sex abuse victims under the Melbourne Response.

His questioning was interrupted throughout Thursday evening by technical difficulties.

Anthony and Chrissie Foster were among the witnesses who gave evidence to the commission on Monday and said they were disappointed by Pell but not surprised.

Two of their daughters, Katie and Emma, were repeatedly abused by Father Kevin O’Donnell at Sacred Heart primary school in Oakleigh. They used their appearance before the commission to call for all cases handled by the Melbourne Response to be reopened, and for compensation payments to be uncapped and determined in line with the civil legal system.

“He has no position in Melbourne now, and to me, he seemed very non-committal to any changes to the compensation scheme,” Foster said.

“He could have said things that could have influenced the church to make the necessary changes now, but he kept talking about the past and about how things were different then.”

Foster described Pell’s comments about truck drivers and abuse as “ludicrous”.

“It was an invalid analogy,” he said. “Above all the church should be a moral leader.”