Vatican Commissioner Accuses Australian Cardinal of "Disregard" for Abused Children

By Byron Kaye
Reuters
June 2, 2015

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/06/01/australia-church-idINKBN0OH18Q20150601

Australian Cardinal George Pell arrives for a meeting at the Synod Hall in the Vatican March 6, 2013.

(Corrects to show Saunders is one of 17 commissioners)

By Byron Kaye

(Reuters) - One of the Catholic Church's commissioners for the protection of children has described the Vatican's finance chief as having an almost sociopathic disregard for abused children, accusations the Australian cardinal rejected as wrong and misleading.

Peter Saunders, a member of the 17-strong commission advising Pope Francis on how to root out sex abuse in the Church, said on Australian television the Vatican's prefect for the Secretariat for the Economy, Australian-born Cardinal George Pell, should be dismissed over allegations he failed to take action to protect children from abuse in the church in Australia.

"He is making a mockery of the papal commission (into child abuse), of the pope himself, but most of all of the victims and the survivors," Saunders said on Channel Nine's 60 Minutes Australia on Sunday.

"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 Saunders, a British victim of abuse.

He said Pell should be "moved aside" and sent back to Australia to address a separate Australian abuse inquiry, which confirmed on Monday that it would ask Pell to testify. But it did not set a date or say if he would have to testify in person.

Pell issued a statement soon after the programme aired, describing Saunders's comments as "false", "misleading" and "outrageous", and said he would consult legal advisers.

Pell, the former archbishop of Sydney and Australia's most senior Catholic, has repeatedly denied claims raised in the Australian inquiry that he moved priests accused of abuse between parishes and offered one victim inducements to drop a complaint.

That inquiry has focused in recent weeks on the rural town of Ballarat, where Pell was an assistant priest in the 1970s. Pell, in the statement published by the network on his behalf, said he had never met Saunders and had always taken a strong stand against child abuse.

Pell said the inquiry's recent hearings in Ballarat in Victoria state had raised old allegations of which he had already been cleared. A week earlier, Pell said he would cooperate with the Australian inquiry if asked to do so.

(Editing by Paul Tait and Clarence Fernandez)