AUSTRALIA/ROME
9 News
AAP
Cardinal George Pell was just a “bloke from Ballarat” when he sat down with child sex abuse survivors in a Rome hotel to discuss their concerns, survivors spokesman David Ridsdale says.
And he says the cardinal is starting to deliver a little action rather than just words to help survivors, with an offer on Friday of the resources of the Australian Catholic University.
But Mr Ridsdale, whose pedophile priest uncle Gerald Ridsdale abused him as a boy in the Ballarat diocese in Victoria, says there’s a long way to go before survivors will be prepared to stand united with the cardinal.
The survivors’ group flew to Rome to see Australia’s senior Catholic cleric give evidence by videolink to the child abuse royal commission sitting in Sydney.
The group wants to see change in the church to improve redress for survivors of clergy abuse and implement systems to ensure such abuse can’t happen again.
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