Cardinal George Pell has admitted he knew about child abuse within the Catholic church, but did nothing about it.
Cardinal Pell, who was giving evidence during his fourth and final day of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, appeared to contradict what he has repeatedly said in the past about having no knowledge of abuse.
For decades Cardinal Pell has insisted he knew nothing about child abuse committed by Catholic priests, but speaking yesterday he said, in fact, he knew and “didn’t do anything about it.”
Speaking with royal commission chairman Peter McClellan, Cardinal Pell said he was told in 1973 that Edward Dowlan, a Christian brother in Ballarat, had been “misbehaving with boys.”
Justice McClellan asked: “What did you do about it?”
To which, Pell replied: “I didn’t do anything about it.”
McClellan fired back: “You didn’t go straight away to the school and say, ‘I’ve got this allegation, what’s going on?”
To which Pell replied: “No I didn’t… certainly I could have done more.”
The Pope is due to decide whether to accept Cardinal Pell’s retirement at the age of 75 later this year.
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