Cardinal George Pell Facing Royal Commission As Victims and Their Families Wait For Long-Delayed Answers

Right at this moment Cardinal George Pell is sitting in a fancy hotel room, on the phone with Australia. He’s giving his long-awaited testimony to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sex Abuse.

Many people are listening to this words.

They are the victims, not all of whom are alive today, waiting to hear him speak his ‘truth’ about what he did and didn’t know about the heinous physical and sexual abuse that was perpetrated by priests in his own brotherhood, right under his nose. They are the victim’s families, survivors of the many challenges and obstacles that have been put before them on the path to justice. And they are the press, wanting to share finally the full truth about what actually happened all those years ago.

What We Know

If you haven’t been keeping up with the story, we’ll give you the quick version.

Way back in 1973 George Pell was a Catholic Father who had just finished his studies in Rome and Oxford. He had returned to his hometown of Ballarat and begun living at the St Alipius presbytery. More than 20 years later this location was revealed to be a haven for paedophiles and a hell for children.

The year that George Pell returned to Ballarat he was sharing his living space with none other than Father Gerald Ridsdale. At this point Ridsdale was already recognised as a serial child abuser who sodomised children whenever the desire took him. He hurt these kids, ignored their cries of pain, and beat them when they made too much noise. In May of 2015 when the Royal Commission began it’s investigation into how the Catholic Church dealt with paedophiles in their clergy they found something terrible. Instead of justice and honesty, the Church was more involved in cover-ups leaving many vulnerable children, particularly orphans in Church care, as easy prey.

In the years prior to Pell’s arrival in Ballarat Ridsdale had carved a swathe of abuse through the children who were supposed to be under his care (you can read more about that here, but the content is graphic). You might not be able to blame Pell for that. However, in the years after Pell took up residence in Ballarat and advanced into a leadership position the abuse by Ridsdale continued, including at the St Alipius School itself. Even Gerald Ridsdale himself described his actions as “out of control” at a hearing in 2015.

What Does It Have To Do With Pell?

The fact is that covering up sexual abuse is just as bad as perpetrating it. Pell is responsible for the actions of the priests that were in his community and under his leadership during the time he spent as an archbishop. During this time it is alleged that he attended meetings were the actions of paedophile priests were discussed, and actions to move them to different parishes were undertaken. One of Ridsdale’s victims, his own nephew David, also claims that when he went to Pell to report his uncle that Pell tried to bribe him. At the Commission hearings last year a man gave sworn evidence claiming that he overhead Pell saying that Gerald had been “rooting boys again”. Not surprisingly, Pell has denied these comments.

At the moment Pell himself hasn’t been charged with abuse, although the Herald Sun did leak a story that claimed Pell was being investigated for a number of offences against boys in the last forty years. These claims have not yet been substantiated.

Today’s Testimony

That leaves us at today.

Today Cardinal George Pell is giving testimony today to the Royal Commission. He’s doing this from a hotel in Rome after claiming that his health made it impossible for him to come back to Australia to give his testimony. Not surprisingly, the victims weren’t happy to hear this, so with the help of the Australian community and musician Tim Minchin they fundraised. Minchin wrote a song, called Come Home (Cardinal Pell), with all monies raised to be donated towards the victims to allow them to travel to Rome and hear his testimony. Fifteen survivors and supporters are there today watching him testify, and hopefully getting some answers.

This is the third time the Royal Commission has tried to ascertain whether Pell knew anything about the abuse within the church, something that insiders have described as being an ‘open secret’. The Commission, and the victims, want to know if Pell was aware and chose to either turn a blind eye, or actively bury, what the priests of his parish were doing to vulnerable children.

What The Truth Means For The Victims

Claire**, the adult child of one of the victims of Ballarat’s paedophile priests was able to speak to Stay At Home Mum about what Pell’s testimony, and more importantly the truth, means for her and her family:

“These children who were failed so badly by individuals and the institution of the church, grew into adults and are so bloody broken. So broken by the abuse that it has far reaching effects beyond the victims alone, it affects everyone around them for the rest of their lives,” she said.

“As Cardinal Pell gives evidence as to what he knew, families like mine, who have had a family member suffer heinous abuse at the hands of these individuals, will go some small way to feeling vindicated.”

Certainly we, as well as the rest of Australia, are interested to see the results of Pell’s testimony, and hope that he has the stones to stand up and admit his faults to allow the victims to finally get on with their lives.

As Tim Minchin so eloquently said in his song: “They have a right to know what you knew.”

** names changed for privacy reasons