A health issue means Cardinal George Pell will not go to Australia this month to testify in person before a royal commission into child sex abuse.
The cardinal, currently based at the Vatican, had been scheduled to appear before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse in Melbourne on December 16.
But Cardinal Pell’s cardiologist has told him that due to a pre-existing heart condition, it is not safe for the 74-year-old to make long haul flights.
The cardinal is prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy.
On Friday, permission was sought from the royal commission to Cardinal Pell to testify by video link, as he has done previously.
But the chairman of the commission, Justice Peter McClellan, refused the application.
Cardinal Pell’s appearance – his third before the royal commission – has been re-scheduled for February, during another round of hearings in Ballarat.
Justice McClellan cited the complexities of the matters on which the cardinal would testify and the technical difficulties that happened the last time a video link was used.
Justice McCLellan said he hopes that the cardinal’s health will have improved by February.
But if not it may “mean further delaying his evidence to a date when he can travel safely to Australia”, the judge said,
The cardinal’s lawyer said his client has “deeply regrets” about having to cancel the journey.
Tickets had been booked for the travel and the cardinal had been due to arrive in Australia on Sunday.
Cardinal Pell’s office stated: “Cardinal Pell realises there may be some who will question the decision to remain in Rome”.
But it added that the cardinal had consistently expressed his intention to do everything possible to assist the inquiry.
“However, it would be unwise for him not to heed medical advice,” the statement added.
Cardinal Pell has also cancelled a speaking event in Florida in the US in January.
Australian abuse victim David Ridsdale, who travelled from London to Melbourne for the hearing, reacted to the Pell news by saying: “I’m not disappointed, I’m furious.”
“I would implore Cardinal Pell to come and face the music like all of us men have had to do for all these years.”
Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied knowledge of attempts to cover up wrongdoing.
Sources
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News category: World.
