Australian Catholic Church admits mistakes amidst allegations of child abuse

The Australian Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat of Economy and highest representative of the Australian Catholic Church, on Monday admitted the “big mistakes” of the religious institution in addressing the allegations of child sexual abuse in Australia.

“The Church in many places, certainly in Australia, has mucked things up and has let people down,” Pell said during a video conference from Rome on his first day of appearance before the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The prelate was arranged to testify about dozens of cases of child abuse which occurred between the 1960s and 1980s in the southern Australian cities of Ballarat, his birthplace, where he worked from 1973 to 1983, and in Melbourne, where he served as archbishop.

Pell said he does not have the number of complaints concerning sexual abuse related to members of the Catholic Church in Ballarat, where at least 14 priests were reportedly involved in dozens of cases of child sexual abuse since the ‘60s.

The prelate, who could not travel to Australia due to health reasons, admitted that many of these cases were ruled out, in some cases under scandalous circumstances.

“I must say in those days, if a priest denied such activity, I was very strongly inclined to accept the denial,” Pell said when talking about allegations of pedophile activities of Monsignor John Day, who was charged in 1971 and 1972 of child abuse when he was a priest in Mildura.

Pell also said he had no idea that the former Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, sent the priests who had committed sex offenses abroad for psychological treatments.

On Sunday, 15 family members and victims who suffered past sexual abuse by clergy in Australia, who came to Rome for the cardinal’s testimony, demanded from Pell, Pope Francis and the Catholic Church to stop the talking and undertake “real actions” to avoid similar cases from recurring.

Some of the children who suffered sexual abuse in Catholic institutions in Australia committed suicide when they became adults or have social problems due to the trauma they suffered.