ROME
Telegraph (UK)
An Australian inquiry on Wednesday heard of a gun-toting paedophile priest who made children kneel between his legs during confession as Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell admitted a time of “crimes and cover-ups” within the Catholic Church.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney heard evidence from Cardinal Pell, via videolink from Rome, for a third day, with the senior Australian official again facing intense questioning about what he knew.
The inquiry is currently focused on the town of Ballarat and the city of Melbourne in the state of Victoria, where Cardinal Pell grew up and worked, and how the church dealt with complaints, many dating back to the 1970s, against the Catholic clergy.
Gail Furness, the top lawyer leading questioning in the inquiry, centred attention on Wednesday on Doveton parish priest Peter Searson, who Cardinal Pell called “one of the most unpleasant” men he had ever met.
The church failed to act in the 1980s despite mounting evidence of his bizarre behaviour.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.