George Pell to be called to give evidence at royal commission

By Jane Lee
Sydney Morning Herald
June 1, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/national/george-pell-to-be-called-to-give-evidence-at-royal-commission-20150601-ghebit.html

Cardinal George Pell

Cardinal George Pell will be asked to give evidence at the second royal commission into child sexual abuse in Ballarat later this year.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse made the announcement on Monday afternoon. Commission chair, Justice Peter McClellan, had received Cardinal Pell's letter, which indicated that he was prepared to come to Australia to give evidence if required. 

"The royal commission will ask him to give evidence in the second of the Ballarat hearings," said the statement.

The first Ballarat hearing, which focused on survivors and the impact of child sexual abuse on the community, ended on Friday. The date for the second Ballarat hearing has not yet been fixed.

The commission said it would ordinarily summon witnesses to appear. "However a person resident overseas cannot be summonsed," the statement said.

The commission does not typically name witnesses before public hearings, which are only announced about four weeks in advance. Witnesses are generally revealed on the day.

But there has been widespread speculation about whether Cardinal Pell will appear since the most recent Ballarat hearing, when one survivor witness accused him of trying to bribe him to stay silent, and another said he had ignored his reports of child sexual abuse at his alma mater, St Patrick's College. 

Justice McClellan has said he expected the commission would be asked to make findings on the claims, and indicated he would ask Cardinal Pell for a full response to both of them.

Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied both claims.

Cardinal Pell, who currently manages the Vatican's finances, was previously a priest in the Ballarat diocese, and later the Archbishop of Melbourne and the Archbishop of Sydney.

It comes as Cardinal Pell seeks legal advice over what he has called false and misleading claims about his handling of child abuse cases within the Catholic Church following comments made by the Vatican's victims representative, Peter Saunders, on 60 Minutes on Sunday.

Mr Saunders, who was hand-picked by the Pope six months ago to be the Catholic Church's commissioner for the protection of children, told the Nine Network on Sunday that Cardinal Pell's position in the church has become "untenable" because "he now has a catalogue of denials".

A statement issued on behalf of Cardinal Pell said on Monday: "The false and misleading claims made against His Eminence are outrageous. The cardinal is left no alternative but to consult with his legal advisers."

The statement said he had always taken a strong stand against child sex abuse and had put in place processes to ensure complaints could be brought forward and independently investigated: "Cardinal Pell has never met Mr Saunders, who seems to have formed his strong opinions without ever having spoken to His Eminence," it said.

Mr Saunders said that given Cardinal Pell's position within the Vatican, "I think he is a massive, massive thorn in the side of Pope Francis' papacy if he's allowed to remain".

"He has a catalogue of denigrating people, of acting with callousness, cold-heartedness – almost sociopathic, I would go as far as to say – this lack of care," said Mr Saunders, who was appointed by Pope Francis last December.

"I think anybody who is a serious obstacle to the work of the commission and to the work of the Pope in trying to clean up the church's act over this matter, I think they need to be taken aside very, very quickly and removed from any kind of position of influence," said Mr Saunders, a British survivor of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.