Cardinal George Pell describes number of paedophile priests in his Australian base as a ‘disastrous coincidence’
Pell gave evidence for a fourth and final day to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney via video link from Rome.
Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell said on Thursday it was a “disastrous coincidence” that five paedophile priests preyed on children in the Australian town where he was based, as survivors accused him of lying.
Pell gave evidence for a fourth and final day to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney via video link from Rome and came under intense questioning from lawyers representing victims of abuse by the clergy.
With the experience of 40 years later, certainly I would agree that I should have done more
He has consistently denied any wrongdoing during his time in the town of Ballarat and the city of Melbourne in the state of Victoria, where he grew up and worked, in the 1970s and 80s when paedophile priests abused dozens of children.
Pell, who revealed Pope Francis was being given a summary of each day’s evidence, has claimed at least two archbishops and other people in authority all deceived him by not revealing what was happening during a period of what he called “crimes and cover-ups”.
Asked on Thursday if he felt the attention on him amounted to a witch hunt, he replied: “I have never expressed such a view but I must confess the idea has occurred to me.”
He called the congregation of at least five paedophile priests in Ballarat at the same time in the 1970s a “disastrous coincidence”, while admitting a boy complained to him in 1974 about Christian Brother Edward Dowlan.