Pell not deceived about abuse: Inquiry
Cardinal George Pell knew a Victorian priest was moved because he had sexually abused children and should have pushed for an unstable and disturbed priest’s removal, a royal commission found.
The child abuse royal commission rejected Cardinal Pell’s evidence that he was deceived and lied to by Catholic Church officials about Australia’s worst paedophile priest, Gerald Ridsdale, and Melbourne parish priest Peter Searson.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse findings relate to Cardinal Pell’s knowledge of abuse allegations in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a priest and bishop’s adviser in Ballarat and an auxiliary bishop and adviser to the archbishop in Melbourne.
Pell was one of a number of senior church officials criticised over their handling of abuse complaints or allegations against numerous priests and Christian Brothers in the Melbourne archdiocese and Diocese of Ballarat.
The catastrophic failures were led by the 1974-1996 Melbourne archbishop Frank Little and the 1971-1997 Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who the inquiry found prioritised protecting the church’s reputation over the welfare of children.
Ridsdale was repeatedly moved between parishes by Bishop Mulkearns, who knew about his offending.
The commission rejected Pell’s claim that Bishop Mulkearns lied to or deceived his advisers in 1982 when Ridsdale was removed from the parish of Mortlake, where the priest later admitted his behaviour was ‘‘out of control’’.
Pell gave evidence the bishop did not give the true reason for Ridsdale’s removal and lied by not doing so.
But the commissioners did not accept that Mulkearns lied to his consultors and were satisfied he did not deceive his consultors.
The commission found Mulkearns told the advisers it was necessary to move Ridsdale from the diocese and from parish
Child abuse royal commission
work because of complaints he had sexually abused children.
‘‘Cardinal Pell’s evidence that ‘paedophilia was not mentioned’ and that the ‘true’ reason was not given is not accepted,’’ the commission’s said.
‘‘It is implausible . . . that Bishop Mulkearns did not inform those at the meeting of at least complaints of sexual abuse of children having been made.’’
The commission also rejected Pell’s evidence he was deceived by Melbourne Catholic education officials because they did not tell him what they knew about Searson’s behaviour. ‘‘We do not accept that Bishop Pell was deceived, intentionally or otherwise,’’ the commissioners found.
In its reports originally released in December 2017, the commission found Archbishop Little repeatedly did nothing about Searson — an ‘‘unstable and disturbed individual’’ — and others who abused children, as he sought to protect the church from scandal.
A 1989 delegation of Doveton teachers told then-Bishop Pell about Searson harassing children, staff and parents, showing children a body in coffin and animal cruelty, among other complaints.
The commission found Cardinal Pell should have urged the archbishop to take action against Searson to protect the children of the parish and the Catholic community in his region.
‘‘On the basis of what was known to Bishop Pell in 1989, it ought to have been obvious to him at the time,’’ the commission said.
‘‘He should have advised the archbishop to remove Father Searson and he did not do so.’’
The unredacted commission findings were released yesterday after the High Court last month overturned Cardinal Pell’s child abuse convictions.
‘‘Cardinal Pell’s evidence that ‘paedophilia was not mentioned’ and that the ‘true’ reason was not given is not accepted.’’