ROME
Sky News
Cardinal George Pell says his predecessor as Melbourne archbishop did not act on child abuse when he should have.
Cardinal Pell said he was strongly critical of and deeply disturbed by what came out about the handling of complaints by Frank Little, who was Archbishop of Melbourne from 1974 to 1996.
‘Archbishop Little on some occasions did not act when he should have and certainly did not make appropriate information available to the personnel advisory board on some occasions,’ Cardinal Pell told the commission from Rome.
Cardinal George Pell agreed with Bishop Connors’ assessment that Bishop Little had a ‘blind spot’ when it came to handling complaints about sexual abuse by priests.
The bishop did not reveal there was a long list of complaints about one priest, when Cardinal Pell had sought advice when he was auxiliary bishop in the Melbourne archdiocese in the 1980s.
‘I have to say that I am strongly critical of it,’ he said of Archbishop Little’s handling of complaints about Sunbury parish priest Father Peter Searson.
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