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Pope adviser accused of inaction over sex abuse

Wednesday, 02 March 2016 6:22 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 02 March 2016 6:20 AM ]

This frame grab, taken on March 2, 2016, shows Australia’s Cardinal George Pell giving evidence via video-link from a hotel in Rome to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney. (Photo by AFP)

Pope Francis’ chief financial adviser has been accused of failing to act on horrific and incessant child abuse by two Australian priests decades ago despite allegedly knowing about them.

The adviser, Australian Cardinal George Pell, is attending an ongoing investigation by the Canberra-appointed Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He is testifying to the commission via video conference from a hotel in Rome.

On Wednesday, Gail Furness, the lead counsel assisting the commission, accused the 74-year-old cleric of having had knowledge of the pedophile activities of priests Gerald Ridsdale and Peter Searson but denying the knowledge as an explanation for his lack of action.

Ridsdale is in prison on convictions of abusing more than 50 children. The church substantiated four complaints of child sexual abuse against Searson, who died in 2009.

Pell and Ridsdale were in the same diocese in the southeastern Australia city of Ballarat in the 1970s. Pell was an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne in the early 1990s, when Searson committed the offenses.

Undated pictures of pedophile priests Gerald Ridsdale (R) and Peter Searson

He, however, has denied accusations by Furness that he had known about allegations against Ridsdale and had been properly briefed by the Catholic Education Office about allegations against Searson.

Two dozen Australian abuse victims and their companions have traveled to Rome to be around when Pell offers his testimony.

David Ridsdale, who was abused for years by his uncle Gerald, told reporters outside the hearing in Rome, “George Pell has consistently pointed the blame elsewhere, accused everybody of being a liar and deceit. If he is telling the truth, that would make him an extraordinarily ignorant man.”

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals over the past few years, involving allegations of child sex abuse by priests and cover-up attempts by priests in high positions.

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