Cardinal Pell ‘keen to Confront Royal Commision Allegations’: Friends
news.com.au
CARDINAL George Pell is anxious to return to Australia to answer allegations he covered up sex abuse by paedophile priests and attempted to bribe a victim, according to those close to him. A Rome-based confidante of the cardinal said he believed he had already fully dealt with the allegations when they were raised in 2013 at a parliamentary inquiry. “The Cardinal was anxious to support the Inquiry and provided detailed submissions as well as many hours of sworn evidence and questioning,” the close friend said. “No adverse findings on these issues emerged.” Another Vatican confidante spoken to by News Corp Australia confirmed Pope Francis was personally aware of the allegations against Cardinal Pell but was treating them as just that — unconfirmed allegations. And one of the Vatican’s leading figures said the Church would no longer turn a blind eye to the abuse of children — past or present — and will take a hard line against those who had done otherwise.
Children’s crusade Father Hans Zollner, Pope Francis’ hand-chosen chairman for the working group within the newly created Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors created to re-educate and assist the clergy worldwide, said action was already taking place. Fr Zollner said Australia’s royal commission would no doubt make more revelations about “evil” abuse by those from the church and issues like clergy having in the past mishandled allegations of abuse against minors. But he said the 17-person committee was working to address that, to provide a set of standard laws and measures to use by clergy to identify and deal with cases of abuse.
‘Nobody is immune’ While declining to comment specifically on the allegations against Cardinal Pell, Fr Zollner said nobody was immune from prosecution from local laws nor church canon law. “When we had explosions of scandals five years ago in Germany, nobody but the experts were aware that this was a lingering problem for decades if not for centuries,” he said. “Now to bring awareness to some parts of the world is an effort I can tell you. “In church and in society at large there are many resistances. Take this country Italy: why is there little debate on this public problem? Because in the political class there are people who do not want this to be discussed. Why? Because they themselves have had problems in this area. “Of course awareness is building but it’s building only in certain spots where there is attention in society and church.”
‘Serious issue’ He said in many parts of the world child sex abuse was considered a serious issue, with child protections laws only introduced a few decades ago. “It may sound strange to western Europeans, North Americans and Australians but in at least 85 per cent of countries in this world child sexual abuse is not seen as a major issue, in terms of public attention,” he said citing recent evidence of abuse in India particularly. “So we have to raise awareness because it is happening everywhere and it is on a much larger scale than we are aware of and presume.” The Jesuit priest said the church was now designing an internal law to rule on when a bishop should report abuse and to whom and how it should be dealt with by both the church but also reporting to agencies like the police. The first meeting of his group with all 17 members, including Australian social welfare expert Kathleen McCormack, met for the first time in February.
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