Cardinal Pell Defends His Melbourne Response Compensation Scheme

ABC
August 22, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2014/s4072187.htm

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: At the Royal Commission into child sex abuse Cardinal George Pell has defended the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne's controversial victims' compensation scheme known as the Melbourne Response.

Giving evidence via video link from Rome, the Cardinal said the scheme he set up was an Australian-first and victims were its first priority.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Victims of clerical sexual abuse have told the royal commission the Melbourne Response gave them inadequate compensation, took away their legal rights to sue, lacked compassion and was intimidating.

But the man who set up the scheme 18 years ago, Cardinal George Pell, gave evidence from Rome that the victims were his priority.

GEORGE PELL: We were ahead of the curve. Not sure there was any other system in Australia, perhaps anywhere else, we were certainly no less generous.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Sean Cash, the barrister acting for abuse victim Paul Hersbach, didn't accept Cardinal Pell's claim that money wasn't his main concern when setting up the Melbourne Response.

SEAN CASH: I suggest you're being disingenuous, Cardinal, when you say your primary objective was to help the victims.

GEORGE PELL: Could I be allowed a chance to speak? My primary concern was not financial. Through the Melbourne Response that money could be provided to people who would have got nothing or very little through the courts.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: In explaining his thinking on whether the Catholic Church should be liable to compensate victims, Cardinal Pell compared the Church to an ordinary business.

GEORGE PELL: If there is a series, for example, of trucks, if in fact the driver of such a truck picks up some lady and then molests her, I don't think it's appropriate because it's contrary to the policy for the leadership of that company to be held responsible; similarly with the Church.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Royal Commission chairman Peter McClellan was sceptical of Cardinal Pell's truck company analogy.

PETER MCCLELLAN: When a priest gains access to a child with the parents' consent, the relationship between the priest and the child is quite different to that between the truck driver and the casual passenger, isn't it?

GEORGE PELL: Yes, I would certainly concede that.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Justice McClellan asked Cardinal Pell if he was ever aware of any abuse allegations against priests in the Melbourne Archdiocese before he heard of them in the media or from police.

GEORGE PELL: Any allegations that came to my knowledge were reported to the authorities and I had no knowledge of any criminal behaviour that was not being dealt with.

PETER MCCLELLAN: Now before you became Archbishop had you ever observed any behaviour by a priest or religious which you believed may have indicated some sexual difficulty in the behaviour of that person?

GEORGE PELL: No, I don't believe I have.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Vatican has refused to provide the royal commission with all the documents it's requested. Cardinal Pell gave evidence he thought the commission's request was unreasonable.

GEORGE PELL: I thought the aims could be equally well achieved by asking specific questions about specific cases in a range of different circumstances. The Vatican, in following international convention, they will not provide the internal working documents of another sovereign state.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The royal commission hearings into the Melbourne Response continue this morning.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Samantha Donovan reporting.