Vatican financial boss in child abuse scandal

This video from Australia says about itself:

60 Minutes: Cardinal George Pell faces more criticism

31 May 2015

CARDINAL George Pell continues to draw fire with the man hand-picked by Pope Francis to protect children and help others abused by members of Catholic Church saying he needs to go.

“I think it’s critical that George Pell is moved aside, that he is sent back to Australia, and that the Pope takes the strongest action against him,” Peter Saunders said speaking to 60 Minute’s Tara Brown in Rome.

Pell has been under fire of late for allegedly ignoring warnings about Father Gerald Ridsdale, Australia’s worst paedophile priest.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which has been sitting in Ballarat has heard witnesses claim Pell turned a blind eye to abuse.

One witness claims Pell tried to silence him with a bribe while another said Pell was present at a meeting where it was announced that Ridsdale needed to be moved to another parish.

Translated from NOS TV in the Netherlands:

Financial supremo of the Vatican under fire

31 May 2015, 15:55

One of the most powerful men in the Vatican, Cardinal George Pell, is under fire. The Commission on Child Abuse, appointed by Pope Francis, thinks that Pell should be dismissed. They say that during his time as a bishop in Australia he did not intervene against child abuse by pedophile priests.

Pell, chief financial official of the Vatican, is a ‘dangerous individual’, ‘cruel’, ‘cold-blooded’ and ‘almost a sociopath’. Those are some of the harsh words which Peter Saunders used to describe Pell in an interview with Australian television.

Saunders, himself a victim of sexual abuse by a priest, was appointed one and a half years ago by Pope Francis personally as a member of the committee. “Personally I think his [Pell’s] position is untenable.”

Mockery

Saunders calls it reprehensible that Cardinal Pell does not want to appear before the special commission in Australia investigating the way the church deals with sexual abuse within their own institution. “He is making a mockery of the papal commission, of the Pope himself, but most of all of the victims and the survivors”.

In the eighties and nineties of the last century, Pell is said to have known about abuse committing priests and to have protected them, instead of the abused children and their families. He is even said to have offered hush money to one of the victims.

“I think it’s critical that George Pell is moved aside, that he is sent back to Australia, and that the Pope takes the strongest action against him” said Saunders.

Apology

Pell has always denied all the accusations. However, earlier, he offered apologies for the fact that he helped a priest in 1993 when that priest had to appear in court because of child abuse.

A few days ago he announced to the Australian committee that he indeed is willing to issue statements in writing or in person.

Also, in 2002 Pell himself was accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy in 1961. Pell was still in training then. That case was dismissed for lack of evidence.

Earlier scandal

It is not the first time that a prominent cleric in Australia is under fire because of covering up child abuse by priests. In 2003, for the same reason Archbishop Peter Hollingworth had to resign as governor-general; the representative of the British head of state in Australia and thus the chief official of the executive power in the country.