Ata Blasts Pell for Child Abuse Comparison

Australian Trucking Association
August 22, 2014

http://www.fullyloaded.com.au/news/industry/1408/ata-blasts-pell-for-child-abuse-comparison/

Noelene Watson says comparison is uncalled for

The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has slammed Cardinal George Pell for comparing the Catholic Church’s responsibility for child abuse to trucking companies that employ drivers who molest women, describing his comment as insulting.

ATA chair Noelene Watson says Pell’s comparison is uncalled for.

"There are more than 170,000 professional truck drivers in Australia. They have families and children. Pell’s analogy is a deep insult to every one of them," Watson says.

"These comments are a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the Royal Commission being faced by the Catholic Church and other institutions that deal with children.

"Cardinal Pell must realise that he cannot solve these problems by insulting Australia’s hardworking truck drivers who deliver the goods we use every day."

Pell likened the Catholic Church’s responsibility for child abuse to that of a "trucking company" last night when appearing at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Melbourne via video-link from the Vatican.

The inquiry has been examining the Church’s Melbourne Response, which Pell established when he was Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.