AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)
Melissa Davey
theguardian.com, Thursday 21 August 2014
Cardinal George Pell has told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse that he originally took comments about the extent of abuse within the church from victim rights groups “with a grain of salt”.
He was facing questions via videolink in Rome about the Melbourne Response, a scheme he introduced to the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne in 1996 to investigate sex abuse claims.
He introduced the scheme in 1996 because dozens of sexual abuse complaints had come to the attention of the church, putting it under great pressure, he said.
It led to him appointing an independent commissioner, lawyer Peter O’Callaghan, to investigate complaints and interview witnesses, Pell, now the financial controller of the Vatican, said.
Counsel assisting, Gail Furness, asked, “Was there any work that you did or you instructed to be done to come to a view as to how many complainants there may be out there who wished to come forward to the independent commissioner?”
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