VATICAN CITY
Aleteia
Diane Montagna
March 2, 2016
VATICAN CITY — Cardinal George Pell will meet privately with survivors of sexual abuse in Rome on Thursday, and has offered to assist victims in meeting Pope Francis, according to an official statement issued by his office on Wednesday.
The Australian Prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy is testifying this week via video link to Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The Royal Commission is questioning the former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, via video link at Rome’s Hotel Quirinale, on how much he knew about sexual abusers active in parishes under his watch, and during the time he served as a priest in Ballarat.
As the first hearing began on Sunday, February 29, from 10pm-2am Rome-time, Cardinal Pell stated: “Let me just say this as an initial clarification, I’m not here to defend the indefensible.” Throughout the hearings, the Australian prelate has continued to reiterate that he had no role in the cover-up.
Offering harsh criticism especially to bishops for allowing, and covering up, the sexual abuse of children and adolescents, Pell told the Royal Commission that the Church “has made enormous mistakes” in how it handled sex abuse cases and is working to remedy them.
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