AUSTRALIA
Huffington Post
Josh Butler Associate Editor, HuffPost Australia
Cardinal George Pell has rubbished a Senate motion calling for him to return to Australia over a misconduct investigation, slamming the upper house’s “interference” in the police action.
In February, a Greens motion agreed to by the federal Senate called on Pell — currently based in the Vatican — to come back to Australia after Victoria Police reportedly began investigations of criminal misconduct against the former Archbishop of Melbourne. The Senate motion also noted “4444 people made allegations of child sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church, including the clergy, between January 1980 and February 2015”.
At the time of the motion, Pell’s office said in a statement: “The suggestion that Cardinal Pell should be accountable for all the wrong doings of Church personnel throughout Australia over many decades is not only unjust and completely fanciful but also acts to shield those in the Church who should be called to account for their failures.”
In a formal letter to the Senate, tabled in the parliament on Monday, Pell went further in his response, criticising the upper house for even agreeing to the motion.
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