How Pell handled abuses to come out

A ROYAL commission’s findings about Cardinal George Pell’s knowledge and handling of historical child sexual abuse complaints will likely be released within weeks, rather than days.

Federal Attorney-general Christian Porter is seeking final approval to publish the royal commission documents in full, after receiving clearance from his Victorian counterpart.

“Now that this response has been received I have sought final advice from my department on the release of the documents and will proceed upon receipt of that advice, which I expect as soon as possible,” Mr Porter said yesterday.

It will likely be weeks, rather than days, before the unredacted versions of two Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse reports are released.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there was now no reason they should not be released.

“It was a very important process but a harrowing time for victims,” Mr Andrews told reporters.

“They are owed the opportunity to fully review the evidence that was given.”

Mr Andrews said there were good reasons not to make the full reports public previously, given a number of trials were being conducted, but that was no longer the case.

The reports into the Catholic Church’s response to abuse complaints and allegations in the Melbourne archdiocese and Victoria’s Ballarat diocese were released in December 2017.

Both had sections blacked out to avoid prejudicing any current or future prosecutions, including the child sexual abuse case against Cardinal Pell. The former Vatican treasurer and Melbourne and Sydney archbishop was freed from jail earlier this month after the High Court overturned his

I HAVE SOUGHT FINAL ADVICE FROM MY DEPARTMENT ON THE RELEASE OF THE DOCUMENTS

CHRISTIAN PORTER

convictions. The royal commission’s findings will not relate to abuse allegations against Cardinal Pell himself, but rather his knowledge of complaints including those against Australia’s most prolific paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale. In 2016, Cardinal Pell told the royal commission he was deceived about paedophile priests in “a world of crimes and cover-ups” and did not know about abuses that occurred in Victoria when he was a priest and bishop.

While a Ballarat priest, Cardinal Pell at times acted as one of the bishop’s advisers and oversaw schools as the diocese’s episcopal vicar for education from 1973 until 1984.