AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with audio]
Australia’s Cardinal George Pell has expressed regret over the mistakes in the way the church handled the complaint of John Ellis. He says he endorsed the legal strategy to vigorously defend and defeat the case in court, but he didn’t have carriage of the day-to-day running of the matter. He’s told the Royal Commission that his deputies in the Sydney archdiocese did not keep him in the loop on the financial negotiations, and it was a mistake to reject the offer to mediate with Mr Ellis.
Transcript
MARK COLVIN: Australia’s most senior Catholic leader, George Pell, came to the child abuse Royal Commission today to answer serious questions about his conduct in the case of abuse victim John Ellis.
Cardinal Pell has apologised for the gross violations and abuse by Father Aidan Duggan, and admitted to a string of mistakes made by him and officials from the Sydney Archdiocese in how they responded to Mr Ellis over many years.
But the Cardinal moved to distance himself from crucial decisions of the Archdiocese.
Emily Bourke reports.
EMILY BOURKE: Mistakes, misunderstandings, illogical muddlings; these were the admissions of Cardinal George Pell over the church’s handling of the Ellis case, and they were followed by expressions of regret and apologies.
GEORGE PELL: My own position is that you never disbelieve a complaint.
EMILY BOURKE: But that’s not always been the case. Cardinal Pell, who is heading to the Rome next week, gave the Royal Commission a candid description of the Vatican’s attitude to abuse allegations in the years before Mr Ellis came forward.
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