Cardinal George Pell Likens Church to Truck Company

Sydney Morning Herald
August 21, 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/national/cardinal-george-pell-likens-church-to-truck-company-20140821-106z7u.html

Cardinal George Pell has strongly defended Melbourne Response as Australia's first comprehensive redress scheme for victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Appearing at the royal commission via video link from the Vatican in Rome on Thursday night, Cardinal Pell likened the Catholic Church's responsibility for child abuse to that of a "trucking company".

If a driver sexually assaulted a passenger they picked up along the way, "I don't think it appropriate for the ownership leadership of that company be held responsible."

Cardinal Pell, who established the Melbourne Response when he was Archbishop of the Melbourne Archdiocese in 1996, denied suggestions that any of its three arms - the Independent Commissioner, compensation panel and counselling arm Carelink - had stopped operating independently of the other.