Cardinal George Pell Insults Truck Drivers over Remarks at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

news.com.au
August 22, 2014

http://www.news.com.au/national/cardinal-george-pell-insults-truck-drivers-over-remarks-at-the-royal-commission-into-institutional-responses-to-child-sexual-abuse/story-fncynjr2-1227033209589

Offensive... the Australian Trucking Association says Cardinal George Pell’s remarks were offensive to truck drivers. Picture: supplied. Source: Supplied

TRUCK drivers around the country are up in arms over Cardinal George Pell’s comments at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Chair of the Australian Trucking Association, Noelene Watson, said Cardinal Pell had publicly insulted every truck driver in Australia.

Mrs Watson was responding to Cardinal Pell’s comments at the Commission where he stated that the Catholic Church was no more responsible for priests who abuse children than a trucking company would be if they employed a driver who molested women.

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

“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.”

Adults Surviving Child Abuse president, Dr Cathy Kezelman, said Cardinal Pell’s comments were not helpful to victims of abuse.

“His comments were outrageous,” she told AAP on Friday.

Commission continues...Cardinal George Pell appears via video link from the Vatican in the Commission into child abuse. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

He showed a lack of compassion, and “continues to duck and weave” she said.

“To have their (victims’) experiences denied yet again drives a knife into the wound and twists it,” she said.

During his video links Cardinal Pell accepted the church has a moral obligation to victims, but in terms of its legal responsibility the actions of its priests are not necessarily its fault.

Cardinal Pell did say if the church had been warned about a priest or had bad policies or procedures in place, “then certainly the church official would be responsible”.

Anthony Foster, the father of two girls raped by notorious abuser Father Kevin O’Donnell, said the comparison was clearly wrong.

“The analogy was just ludicrous,” he said.

Mr Foster said it “was unbelievable to watch this prince of the Catholic church making these ridiculous statements.”

“Yesterday was extremely tough for us,” he told ABC Radio on Friday.

“They knew that this perpetrator had assaulted other people back in 1958, that was admitted by the church lawyer yesterday.

“All the way through, they have fought tooth and nail, telling us they knew nothing, well, yesterday the truth came out.”

Mr Foster and his wife, Christine, won a $750,000 settlement from the Melbourne archdiocese after two of their daughters Emma and Kate were raped by a pedophile priest. Emma later took her own life.

Mr Foster repeated his claim that Cardinal Pell showed a “sociopathic lack of empathy” when they met to discuss the case in the 1990s.

In his statement to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Cardinal Pell said he had not tried to insult the Fosters.

“I am sorry for anything I did to upset them at this meeting,” he said.