ROME
Reuters
ROME | BY PHILIP PULLELLA
Australian victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests said on Friday they were disappointed they could not talk to Pope Francis and contested the Vatican’s assertion that they did not go through the proper channels for a meeting.
The group of about 15 were in Rome for a week to watch Cardinal George Pell give evidence via video link to an Australian government commission about sexual abuse in Australia when he was a priest and bishop there in the 1970s and 1980s. He is now the Vatican’s treasurer.
“We would have wanted to talk to him (the pope) about our story,” said David Ridsdale, who as a boy was abused by his uncle, a priest at the time.
“We would have wanted to know how the pope could have assisted us by vocalizing his support and acknowledging the mistakes of the past.”
On Monday the victims announced they had sent a fax asking for a meeting to the pontifical household, the office that organizes the pope’s schedule, to a number they said was provided by Pell’s office.
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