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George Pell testifies from Rome for abuse royal commission: day two

Survivors say they can’t believe a man of such intelligence was unaware of a paedophile priest | TODAY’S KEY POINTS

John Lyons and Jacquelin Magnay
8 min read
1:52PMMarch 01, 2016
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Mulkearns and Fiscalini deceived Pell

Cardinal George Pell has been giving evidence to the royal commission for the second day about what he knew of sexual abuse by paedophile priests and brothers in Victoria in the 1970s. The cardinal, who is now the Vatican’s finance chief, was too ill to return to Australia for questioning and is testifying via videolink from the Hotel Quirinale in Rome in front of a group of survivors from Ballarat.

Here’s how yesterday unfolded. Updates on today’s hearing from Jacquelin Magnay in Rome and John Lyons and Dan Box at The Royal Commission in Sydney, are below.

All times AEST

1.45pm: ‘Of course I told truth’

George Pell has finished his testimony for the day and left the Hotel Quirinale, where he was asked by reporters if he had told the truth. He replied: “of course I did’’.

But the Ballarat survivors group believes the Cardinal is “throwing people under the bus’’, specifically mentioning Bishop Mulkearns who knew of the paedophilia activities of Gerard Ridsdale for decades.

Ridsdale’s nephew, David Ridsdale, said outside the hotel: “I think he threw a whole lot of people under the bus.”

Another survivor Phillip Nagle added: “Bishop Mulkearns is dying and I think somebody has to take the blame and it looks like it will be him.”

11.57am: Hearing adjourned, returning 8am tomorrow.

11.28: Pell’s account ‘unbelievable’

Child sex abuse survivors say it’s unbelievable a man of Cardinal Pell’s intelligence was unaware of a paedophile priest’s offending when two Victorian communities and local clergy knew about it.

The cardinal told the commission that while he was on a Ballarat diocese committee that advised on the transfers of priests he was never told of the offending of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale in the 1970s.

His nephew David Ridsdale, who was sexually abused by his uncle, is among a group of survivors hearing the cardinal’s evidence in Rome and told reporters it appeared the Catholic Church was behaving “with lies and deceit” within its own structure.

He said he assumed Victorian Police would be taking up the matter in relation to church officials moving paedophile priests to parishes where they could continue their offending.

Abuse survivor Phil Nagle said the paedophile Ridsdale’s offending with children was well known in two Victorian communities including among clergy, parents and police.

“Cardinal Pell is a very astute, a very bright man so how can he say he didn’t know?

“He is the one putting the accusations back on his superiors that they lied and deceived.” Mr Ridsdale said Cardinal Pell was “either culpable or an ignorant buffoon”.

“I don’t believe he’s the latter and we have no evidence of the former so we have to wait for the commission to do its job.” Chief Commissioner Peter McClellan warned the cardinal he would be culpable if the commission found he knew of Ridsdale’s offending at the time.

11.20am: Pell pushed on Ridsdale

10.35am:‘Ignorant but not wilful’

Cardinal George Pell has agreed that he was “ignorant but not wilful” in relation to the repeated movement of a paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale from parish to parish.

He agreed this was the case when it was put to him by counsel assisting, Gail Furness, SC.

At the time, in the 1970s, then Father Pell was a member of the consultors committee which decided on the moves of Ridsdale, a serial paedophile.

A reminder of Gerald Ridsdale’s movements and offending:

1962-1964 - Assistant priest at Ballarat North - First complaint in Ridsdale’s first year as priest - boy from Villa Maria boarding school in Ballarat East

1964-1966 - Assistant priest Mildura

1966-1969 - Assistant priest Swan Hill

1970-1972 - Assistant priest Warrnambool

1972-1974 - Assistant priest Ballarat East

1974-1975 - Parish priest Apollo Bay. Puts in for transfer February 1975 after man tells him in a pub there’s talk about him and kids

1975 - Parish priest Inglewood. Leaves overnight after policeman complains that he has interfered with his son. Sent for counselling

Early 1976 - Temporarily appointed to Bungaree

1976-1979 - Administrator then parish priest Edenhope

1980 - Study leave, National Pastoral Institute. Offended there

1981-1982 - Parish priest Mortlake. Prolific offender. Replacement believes Ridsdale molested every boy aged 10-16 at the school

1982 - Starts on-and-off counselling

1982-1985 - Catholic Enquiry Centre, Sydney. Within 12 months offends against boy from parish prayer group who became his altar boy.

End of 1983 centre director says “I want him out of here”

Early 1986 - Short periods as Woy Woy assistant priest and Forestville administrator, both in then Sydney archdiocese

July 1986-May 1988 - Assistant priest Horsham (August 1987 - Written complaint about offending while in Horsham)

April 1988 - Steps down from parish work

June 1988 - Priestly faculties suspended for 12 months

November 1989-September 1990 - Residential program at Jemez Springs centre in New Mexico. A document before commission says Ridsdale admitted to police he offended in US

March/April 1991 - Assistant priest St John of God Hospital, Richmond, NSW (role as a chaplain)

May 1993 - Admits indecently assaulting eight children. Now Cardinal George Pell and Father Adrian McInerney accompany him to court. Sentenced to two years and three months, suspended after three months

November 1993 - Laicised

August 1994 - Admits abusing 20 boys and one girl from 1961-1981. Held in custody

October 1994 - Jailed for 18 years (15-year minimum)

August 2006 - Sentenced to 13 years (seven-year minimum); admits abusing 10 boys from 1970-1987

April 2014 - Sentenced to eight years (five-year minimum); admits abusing 11 boys, three girls from 1961-1980

April 2019 - Eligible for parole, aged 84.

AAP

9.56am: Hearing resumes

9.32am: Hearing adjourns for short break

9.30am: Bishop and priests ‘lied’

Cardinal George Pell says he was lied to and deceived by a bishop and priests who knew about the child sexual abuse crimes of a fellow clergyman, who was repeatedly moved to new parishes where he continued to offend.

Cardinal Pell told the child abuse royal commission that while he didn’t know why Father Gerald Ridsdale was moved on to new parishes in the Victorian diocese of Ballarat in the 1970s, Bishop Ronald Mulkearns and other priests knew of repeated paedophilia allegations.

Commissioner Justice Peter McClellan asked: “You say the bishop deceived you, is that right?” Cardinal Pell replied: “Unfortunately, correct.”

An advisor to the bishop, Monsignor Fiscalini, deceived him as well, Cardinal Pell said.

The commission heard that Bishop Mulkearns, Monsignor Fiscalini and possibly other consultors knew of complaints against Ridsdale as early as 1972.

Mulkearns and Fiscalini deceived Pell

Ridsdale was repeatedly shifted from one parish to the next as “talk” began among parishioners about his interfering with children.

“It’s hard to imagine a greater deception, isn’t it,” Commissioner McClellan asked.

Cardinal Pell replied: “It probably would be possible to imagine a greater deception but it is a gross deception.”

Cardinal Pell told the commission he understood there were “difficulties” with Ridsdale but was not told they involved paedophilia, prompting Commissioner McClellan to ask if he was lied to.

“So we’re in the position where you were deceived by the bishop and deceived by Monsignor Fiscalini and someone - possibly the bishop - has lied to you, is that right?” The commissioner asked. Cardinal Pell replied: “That is correct.”

8.50am: Children were put at risk

Children were put at risk when a Victorian bishop moved a priest after a child abuse complaint, Cardinal George Pell says.

Cardinal Pell said it was unacceptable that Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns moved paedophile Gerald Francis Ridsdale between parishes, including to Inglewood in 1975, after receiving a victim’s complaint.

“It’s unacceptable because of the risk it presented to children in Inglewood and that was exacerbated by the fact it doesn’t seem as though any effort was made to withdraw Ridsdale, at least for a period, for counselling or advice or help,” he said.

Loud gasps of surprise were boomed – with a second’s time delay – direct into the Hotel Quirinale room of the Royal Commission when Cardinal George Pell blithely claimed he had no interest whether it was common knowledge in a Victorian country town that the catholic priest Gerard Ridsdale was sexually offending against young children.

In the most shocking revelation of Cardinal Pell’s evidence so far, he told the Royal Commision that he didn’t know if the offences of priest Ridsdale was common knowledge or not.

Cardinal Pell said: “I couldn’t say everyone knew, I knew a number of people did, I didn’t know if it was common knowledge or not. It was a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me.’’ (See video below)

Pell: 'It's a sad story and it wasn't of much interest to me'

Cardinal Pell had started saying talking about suffering but his comments were cut out by the loud reaction to his comments. For a split second Cardinal Pell appeared confused and then went on to say he very much regretted the suffering but he had no reason to turn his mind to the “evils”’ that Ridsdale had perpetrated.

Ridsdale was the parish priest at Apollo Bay in 1974 to 1975 but put in for a transfer in February 1975 after a man told him there was pub talk about him and children.

He went to Inglewood, where he left overnight in 1975 after a policeman complained about him interfering with his son.

Cardinal Pell said moving Ridsdale was unacceptable and at the time the view would have been that he should have been at least sent for counselling as a minimum step if a bishop knew it was a first offence.

“These were different times with different sets of predispositions,” Cardinal Pell said.

“But whatever the predispositions, it’s unsatisfactory.

“In those times if it was a first offence they would have thought that there was more justification in them being sent away for counselling and for help with the possibility of return.”

7.55am: ‘We danced like we won the Oscars’

David Ridsdale, a Ballarat abuse survivor, tells the media “we danced like we won the Oscars” after the group returned to their hotel room at the conclusion of the first day of the royal commission hearing, to find out Spotlight (about The Boston Globe’s investigation of abuse in the Catholic Church) had won Best Picture.

Clergy victims arrive at Hotel Quirinale on day two of the hearing. Picture: Ella Pellegrini
Clergy victims arrive at Hotel Quirinale on day two of the hearing. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

6.16am: ‘I have full backing of Pope’

Cardinal George Pell has just arrived for the second day of giving evidence at the royal commission - this time through the front door of Hotel Quirinale - and declared “I have the full backing of the Pope”.

Cardinal Pell had met with Pope Francis earlier in the day as part of his regular weekly schedule, where the ongoing royal Ccmmission was discussed.

3am: More troubled questions to come

The rain continues to pour down here in Rome, and earlier there was a fierce hailstorm. Is this a portent of the grilling Cardinal George Pell will again face at 10pm Italian time when counsel assisting the royal commission Gail Furness digs into the nitty gritty of his later career as an assistant priest?

Certainly the survivors from Ballarat who are here at the Hotel Quirinale to witness Cardinal Pell’s evidence believe there are more troubled questions to come and that Ms Furness was setting the scene on day one for a more pointed inquisition on day two.

She had led Cardinal Pell through his reactions to his church compatriots and how they had ill-handled the paedophilia activities of Monsignor John Day; how the Ballarat diocese had reappointed Day to the Timboon parish after knowing of his sexual acts against children.

Cardinal Pell could be now quizzed about his role as auxiliary bishop of Melbourne in the late 1980s and his knowledge of some of the worst clergy paedophiles at the time: Gerard Ridsdale, Peter Searson and Kevin O’Donnell. Critically he will be asked about his role as a consultor – one of the advisers to the bishop – and influence, if any, in the relocation, rather than reporting to authorities, of these paedophiles.

Meanwhile the Cardinal’s evidence has attracted headline news across BBC World and Europe and of course blanket coverage in Australia, but within Rome there was only short mentions highlighting his comments about the catastrophe of paedophile priests and the Church’s mishandling of the issue.

- With AAP

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Pell: I was told of abusers
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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/royal-commission/george-pell-testifies-from-rome-for-abuse-royal-commission-day-two/news-story/49f672194cc0f2cf45c184473810df93