Cardinal Pell defends his handling of abuse allegations

Cardinal George Pell has launched a robust defence of his handling of sexual abuse allegations within the Church, insisting he was being made a “scapegoat” for others’ failings, reports The Australian.

In a series of strongly worded submissions to the Royal Commission into Institutional Res­ponses to Child Sexual Abuse, Australia’s highest-ranking Church ­official denies he had the knowledge or authority required to take ­direct action against priests ­accused of sexual abuse, including the notorious priests Gerard Ridsdale and Peter Searson.

Cardinal Pell dismisses the credibility of numerous witnesses and accuses counsel assisting the commission of overstating evidence, making gratuitous submissions, and relying on surmise and conjecture.

“There is not a single aspect of that evidence which establishes that Father Pell acted inappropriately in any way,” said Sam Duggan, counsel acting on behalf of Cardinal Pell, in a submission ­released yesterday.

“Ultimately, when one assesses all of the evidence placed before the commission, including that of Cardinal Pell, the commission could not be ‘comfortably satisfied’ that any one of the alle­gations made against Cardinal Pell has been made out.”

In a submission focused on the inquiry into the Church in Ballarat, which largely centred on the actions of Ridsdale, Mr Duggan noted that the “extensive process had not produced a single witness, nor a single document, which evidences that any person, ... provided information to ... Pell which would have indicated that Ridsdale was abusing children.”

The Cardinal's submission was released on the same day as another submission, from counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC and Stephen Free, which argued that Cardinal Pell knew enough to conclude that he should have taken stronger action against a paedophile priest.

Their submission urged the commission to reject the Cardinal's evidence.