Cardinal George Pell May Have Known about Priest's Crimes against Children, Royal Commission Hears

By Jane Lee
The Age
May 18, 2015

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/cardinal-george-pell-may-have-known-about-priests-crimes-against-children-royal-commission-hears-20150519-gh4twx

Disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale outside court with former Archbishop of Sydney George Pell. Photo: Geoff Ampt

Cardinal George Pell may have known about disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale's crimes against children years before he faced charges and may have been involved in decisions to move him between parishes, a royal commission has heard.

Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Gail Furness, SC, described on Tuesday how the College of Consultors - a group of priests who advised the Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns - decided to move Ridsdale between parishes.

Cardinal Pell, who supported Ridsdale at his first court appearance on child sex offences in 1993, was previously a member of the group. Now a Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See in Rome, Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied knowing children were abused in Ballarat when he was there.

Minutes of a Consultors' meeting in September 1982 noted that Bishop Mulkearns "advised that it had become necessary for Father Gerald Ridsdale to move from the Parish of Mortlake."

Negotiations were underway for Ridsdale to work with the Catholic Enquiry Centre in Sydney, and a new appointment replacing him "will be necessary to take effect after October 17th." They did not say why the Bishop said this had become necessary.

But Ms Furness said it was expected that Bishop Mulkearns "knew it was because Ridsdale had abused boys in Mortlake and that he had offended in this manner in 1975".

"Several of the Consultors had been present at meetings of or were members of the College of Consultors on each occasion in the past when Ridsdale had been moved."

Ridsdale will give evidence to the Royal Commission during its first hearing in Ballarat via video link from prison, where he is serving time for 30 offences committed against 14 children. He is expected to discuss the way church authorities handled abuse allegations against him, including sending him for psychiatric treatment.

It is the first time a convicted perpetrator will publicly provide evidence to the royal commission in Victoria.

Seventeen male victims of child sexual abuse at Catholic-run schools will also give evidence. Ten were abused St Alipius Boys' School, while seven were abused at St Patrick's College, mostly by convicted Christian Brother Edward Dowlan, who was jailed in March for indecent assaults against 20 young boys between 1971 and 1985.

Ridsdale, 81, was part of a paedophile ring involving Catholic clergy in Ballarat in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. He has previously pleaded guilty to 138 charges of indecent assault, gross indecency and buggery against as many as 40 children. He will be eligible for parole in 2019, when he will be almost 85 years old.

Catholic Church Insurance would not indemnify the Diocese of Ballarat after 1975 "presumably because of the knowledge Bishop Mulkearns had of Ridsdale's offending from that time", she said.

Former priest and convicted sex offender Paul David Ryan, has also testified at a private hearing.

Victims on Monday spoke about the ongoing impact of the abuse on their lives, including their marriages and their relationships with their children.

"Many witnesses are expected to say that they continue to suffer from mental health issues and that they have attempted suicide as a result of the abuse they experienced as children," Ms Furness said.

Abuse survivor Paul Auchlettl likened the shame of child abuse to an "unseen cancer in this town. There is no collective memory or place to mark the abuse and the horror of the number of suicides...it is like an unseen carnage."

The three-week hearing will examine Catholic schools' responses to child sexual abuse allegations, focusing on the victims and the community.

Weeks ahead of its halfway point, the commission has referred more than 600 matters to police for investigation around Australia since it started in 2013, chairman Justice Peter McClellan said.

Mr McClellan said the evidence of Ridsdale and other perpetrators would play an important part in the commission "coming to understand both why ordained members of the Catholic church became abusers and how the church responded to allegations of their abuse."

"Without the evidence of perpetrators, the true story of the response of the church in Ballarat may never be completely revealed."