✣ Cardinal Pell grilled over abuse response
What happened? Cardinal George Pell has made his third appearance before Australia’s royal commission on child abuse. Speaking for four hours on a video link from Rome, the cardinal said the Church had made “enormous mistakes”. But he said it was “nonsense” to suggest that he had known about the offences committed by Gerald Ridsdale, a priest who was later convicted of serial child abuse. Pell said clerics who knew about the abuse had kept him “in the dark”. What the British media are saying In the Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt said Pell’s denials did not put him in a good light. Ridsdale’s abuse ‘was known by several fellow priests — including a cousin and friends of Pell — as well as by his bishop” and several others. “And this when Pell was the episcopal vicar for education in the diocese. At the very least, he seems to have failed in his job.” Miranda Devine of Australia’s Daily Telegraph pointed to the cardinal’s later record as Archbishop of Melbourne. “Sick of the dithering inaction of his fellow bishops”, Pell drew up a response which, at the time, “was groundbreaking. Not perfect, but it acknowledged a problem, helped victims and referred offenders to police if possible.” The current attacks on him are “profoundly unfair”. What US Catholics are saying At Australia’s Catholic Weekly, Monica Doumit warned readers not to take media presentations as the whole story. In a detailed analysis, she suggested that many of the oft-repeated stories about Cardinal Pell were open to question. It isn’t about defending the cardinal, Doumit said, but about wanting the truth to come to light. “The desire to distort and cover up the truth is what led us into this mess in the first place.” John Allen at Crux said the cardinal has divided Australia. “I spent 72 hours in the country this week, and spoke to scores of national and local outlets on the Pell story. What I picked up is that many Australians believe Pell is getting a long-overdue comeuppance, while others think he’s being railroaded.”
