ROME/AUSTRALIA
Reuters
ROME/SYDNEY | BY PHILIP PULLELLA AND JANE WARDELL
Australian Cardinal George Pell, the highest-ranking Vatican official to testify on systemic sexual abuse of children by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, on Tuesday said he never notified his superiors in the 1970s about rumors of abuse.
The Vatican’s treasurer told Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse that he had heard reports of sexual abuse by at least one priest who was moved to another parish, but assumed senior clergy were dealing with the problem.
“I would concede I should have done more,” Pell told the inquiry in Sydney as he gave evidence for a third day via videolink from a Rome hotel.
Given Pell’s high rank within the church, his testimony to the Australian inquiry into sexual abuse cases that occurred decades ago has taken on wider implications about the accountability of church leaders.
At one point during a testy exchange early in his evidence, Pell was asked about abuse by one priest who was later convicted of 138 offences against more than 50 children in Australia.
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