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Australian abuse victims seek truth from cardinal testimony Australian sex abuse victims await cardinal’s testimony
(about 1 hour later)
ROME — Australians who were raped and molested by priests are hoping to learn the truth about what a top Vatican cardinal knew about their attackers when he testifies before an investigative commission at a Rome hotel. ROME — A group of Australians who were raped and molested by Catholic priests when they were children are hoping to learn the truth about what a top Vatican cardinal knew about their attackers when he testifies Sunday before an investigative commission at a Rome hotel.
Thanks to a crowd-funding campaign, about two dozen Australian sex abuse survivors and their companions travelled across the planet to be on hand when Cardinal George Pell testifies Sunday night via video link before Australia’s Royal Commission. Thanks in part to a crowd-funding campaign, about two dozen Australian sex abuse survivors and their companions travelled across the planet to be on hand when Cardinal George Pell testifies via video link before Australia’s Royal Commission. It’s the third time that Pell, Pope Francis’ top financial adviser, has testified about the sex abuse scandal, but the current round has generated intense international attention because it is taking place a short walk from the Vatican.
David Ridsdale, who was abused for four years in Ballarat in Australia’s Victoria state, said the city has been devastated by the huge numbers of abuse victims, scores of whom have committed suicide. He said Ballarat wants Pell to “stand up and take responsibility on behalf of the church” for what transpired in his hometown. The commission, which is half-way through a 435 million Australian dollar ($300 million) government-authorized probe into how all Australian institutions dealt with abuse, agreed to let Pell testify from Rome because he was too ill to travel home. Two weeks ago, it also agreed to let victims be on hand to re-create the type of public hearing that Pell would be subject to in Australia.
David Ridsdale, who was abused for four years by his uncle, the notorious pedophile Gerald Ridsdale, said he had done 17 press interviews before Pell’s testimony even began — and was grateful that the horror of what transpired in Ballarat was finally getting known outside of Australia.
The deeply Catholic town in Australia’s Victoria state has been devastated by a huge number of abuse victims, scores of whom have killed themselves in a cluster of abuse-related suicides unseen anywhere else.
Ridsdale said Ballarat’s survivors merely want Pell to “stand up and take responsibility on behalf of the church” for what transpired in Pell’s own hometown.
“We’re here to seek the truth. We’re here to heal our city,” Ridsdale said. “We have the highest suicide rate among men in Australia. We have some of the worst drinking and violence problems. And it all stems from that abuse.”
The commission’s current hearings relate to Ballarat and how the Melbourne archdiocese responded to allegations of abuse, including when Pell served as a Melbourne auxiliary bishop.
Pell, who was born and raised in Ballarat, was ordained a priest there in 1966 and was a consultant to Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who moved Ridsdale between parishes for years.
During the opening address at a Royal Commission hearing in Ballarat last week, the lawyer assisting the commissioner said that as a consultant, Pell would have been responsible for giving advice to the bishop on the appointments of priests to parishes.
Pell is facing allegations that during his time as a priest and as auxiliary bishop, he ignored warnings about an abusive teacher, attempted to bribe David Ridsdale to stay silent and was part of a committee that shuffled Gerald Ridsdale between parishes. When Gerald Ridsdale was finally brought to justice, Pell accompanied him to court.
Pell has long denied allegations that he was involved in transferring Gerald Ridsdale — with whom he once lived at the Ballarat presbytery — and said he never tried to buy the silence of Ridsdale’s nephew. Pell said he has no memory of ignoring warnings in the 1970s that a teacher was abusing students.
He has defended his response to the abuse scandal while being a bishop and later the archbishop of Melbourne, though he has expressed regret over encounters with victims seeking compensation, saying he and others in the church failed in their moral and pastoral responsibilities to them.
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AP writer Kristen Gelineau contributed from Sydney, Australia.
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Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.