Archdiocese of Sydney dumps George Pell’s sex abuse verdict

By Dan Box
Australian
September 18, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/archdiocese-of-sydney-dumps-george-pells-sex-abuse-verdict/story-e6frg6nf-1227062015361

THE Catholic archdiocese of Sydney has overturned the findings of a Vatican inquiry, conducted under its previous archbishop ­George Pell, which attacked the credibility of alleged child abuse victims and said they may have “fabricated” their claims of abuse by a priest.

A “definitive final ­decree”, written by Cardinal Pell’s interim successor, Bishop Peter Comensoli, found “with moral certainty” that the alleged victims were abused at a boarding school during the 1970s, as they claimed.

Evidence available to the initial inquiry but not mentioned in the previous decree suggested a “pattern of allegations and admissions” about the priest that “substantially undermines the credibility of his claim to innocence,” Bishop Comensoli found.

His final decree, issued this month, also raised “significant doubts” over the conclusions of the three senior Australian clerics appointed by Cardinal Pell to carry out the original investigation.