Top Vatican Figure under Fire for Child Abuse Comments

Irish Independent
August 22, 2014

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/top-vatican-figure-under-fire-for-child-abuse-comments-30528209.html

Cardinal George Pell

A top Vatican official has come under fire for drawing an analogy between the Catholic Church’s response to child abuse and a trucking company.

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Cardinal Pell, Australia’s leading Catholic cleric and a former archbishop of both Melbourne and Sydney, said it would not be appropriate for legal culpability to be ‘foisted’ on church leaders, although he acknowledged the church had a moral obligation to victims of paedophile priests.

Speaking to a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Melbourne, Cardinal Pell cited the hypothetical example of a woman being molested by a truck driver.

"If the truck driver picks up some lady and then molests her, I don't think it's appropriate, because it is contrary to the policy, for the ownership, the leadership of that company to be held responsible," he said via video link from Rome.

"Similarly with the church and the head of any other organisation.

"If every precaution has been taken, no warning has been given, it is, I think, not appropriate for legal culpability to be foisted on the authority figure."

Cardinal Pell’s comments sparked outrage as support groups claimed his ‘outrageous’ comments showed a lack of compassion for victims of abuse.

"His comments were outrageous," Adults Surviving Child Abuse president Cathy Kezelman said.

"To have [victims’] experiences denied yet again drives a knife into the wound and twists it.”

Meanwhile, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said it showed Cardainal Pell had no ‘conception’ of what is appropriate behaviour.

"He shows that he really has absolutely no conception of what is appropriate or inappropriate behaviour and what are appropriate or inappropriate things to say to survivors," group spokesperson Nicky Davis told ABC radio.

"It was a highly offensive comparison and showed that, at the end of the day, all he was concerned with was protecting himself and making excuses for behaviour that is inexcusable."

Earlier this year, Cardinal Pell was hand-picked by Pope Francis for his new role as head of a new Vatican finance ministry.