Australian abuse victims contest Vatican on lack of pope meeting
ROME/ SYDNEY: Australian victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests said on Friday they were disappointed they were not granted a meeting with Pope Francis and contested the Vatican’s assertion they failed to make their request through the proper channels.
The group of about 15 were in Rome for a week to watch Cardinal George Pell give evidence via video link to an Australian government commission about sexual abuse in Australia when he was a priest and bishop there in the 1970s and 1980s.
“We would have wanted to know how the pope could have assisted us by vocalising his support and acknowledging the mistakes of the past,” said David Ridsdale, who as a boy was abused by his uncle, a priest at the time.
A Vatican spokesman said on Friday no request had been made though the proper channels. The group had made their approach through Pell’s office.
“Considering what’s been happening, I don’t believe there was a lack of awareness of our efforts,” Ridsdale told Reuters at a Rome hotel before the group left for the airport.
Pell, who is now the Vatican’s treasurer, became the highest ranking Vatican official to give testimony on the issue of system abuse within the Church.
His four-day grilling over cases involving hundreds of children in Australia from the 1960s to the 1990s has taken on wider implications about the accountability of church leaders. — Reuters