VATICAN CITY
The Age
March 5, 2016
Goya Dmytryshchak
The Vatican has issued a statement praising Cardinal George Pell for his testimony at the royal commission and rejecting claims the Catholic Church had done nothing, or very little, to respond to child sex abuse.
The statement comes after Australian child sex abuse survivors who flew to Rome to watch Cardinal Pell give evidence, said they were unimpressed he told the inquiry he had no knowledge of offending by paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale in Ballarat in the 1970s and 1980s.
It also comes as survivors were informed on Friday that their request to meet Pope Francis was never received.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Cardinal Pell’s appearance at the live inquiry and the presentation of a Best Picture Oscar to Spotlight – a film about The Boston Globe’s investigation into Catholic Church sex abuse cover up there – had brought a new wave of attention from the media and public to the issue of child sex abuse by clergy.
“The sensationalist presentation of these two events has ensured that, for a significant part of the public, especially those who are least informed or have a short memory, it is thought that the Church has done nothing, or very little, to respond to these terrible problems, and that it is necessary to start anew,” Father Lombardi wrote.
“Objective consideration shows that this is not the case.”
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