In a statement from the Vatican, Cardinal George Pell has said the Church’s failure to deal with Melbourne’s paedophile priests was shameful.
Cardinal Pell was responding to a television interview of abuse victim Julie Stewart, where she was critical of the cardinal’s testimony to a previous Victorian inquiry.
Ms Stewart was abused in the confessional in a Melbourne parish by Fr Peter Searson in 1985.
In 1998, when Cardinal Pell was archbishop in Melbourne, he apologised to Ms Stewart for the abuse.
She received A$25,000 in compensation from the church.
But in 2013, Cardinal Pell told a Victorian inquiry: “No conviction was recorded for Searson on sexual misconduct. There might be victims.”
Ms Stewart said she was deeply angered by the comment and that response prompted her to go to Australia’s child abuse royal commission, which is holding hearings in Melbourne.
“I was absolutely so angry . . . and I thought ‘let’s get ’em’,” Ms Stewart said.
In a statement from the Vatican, a spokesperson for Cardinal Pell said he was very moved by Ms Stewart’s courage and openness in giving evidence to the royal commission.
“There is no inconsistency between the evidence provided by the Cardinal at the Victorian parliamentary inquiry and apology provided by Cardinal Pell to Ms Stewart,” the statement said.
“The failure of church leaders to address the conduct of Peter Searson and other abusers is shameful and as the evidence at the Victorian parliamentary inquiry illustrates, was one of the main reasons why the cardinal moved so swiftly to establish the Melbourne Response.”
Cardinal Pell set up the Melbourne Response to handle abuse complaints in the archdiocese when he became Melbourne archbishop in 1996.
Cardinal Pell told the 2013 Victorian inquiry two police investigations into Fr Searson were inconclusive and the Catholic Education Office was never able to pin anything on him.
Fr Searson, who died in 2009, was never convicted of a sex offence, despite being charged with unlawful assault of an altar boy in 1997 and pleading guilty.
Melbourne archdiocese was accused of dumping a string of paedophile priests, including Fr Searson, on one parish because it was poor.
Sources
- ABC
- The Guardian
- AAP
- Image: ABC