Cardinal George Pell quizzed in child abuse inquiry in Australia

Interrupted by jeers from observers, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers denied an accusation that his testimony to an inquiry into child sex abuse was an attempt to deflect blame for the Catholic Church transferring Australia’s worst paedophile priest from parish to parish.

Australian Cardinal George Pell was a priest in the 1970s in the town of Ballarat where he advised Bishop Ronald Mulkearns about the placement of priests within the diocese.

Pell, now the pope’s top financial adviser, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he had no idea that priest Gerald Ridsdale was repeatedly transferred by the bishop for more than a decade because of paedophile accusations.

Pell rejected an accusation made by the lead counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, that his answers were designed to remove his own responsibility for Ridsdale’s crimes.

“My answers were designed to answer your questions accurately and completely,” Pell told the Sydney inquiry via videolink from a Rome hotel.

Asked if he accepted any responsibility of Ridsdale’s repeated transfers within the Ballarat diocese, Pell replied: “No, I don’t.”

The royal commission — which is Australia’s highest form of investigation — is investigating how Pell dealt with abuse allegations as a priest, educator and adviser to Mulkearns, as well as how the Melbourne archdiocese responded to allegations of abuse, including when Pell served as a Melbourne auxiliary bishop.

It was the second day of evidence for the 74-year-old cleric, who because of ill health could not travel to Australia to give evidence in person at the inquiry into decades of child abuse.

On Monday, Pell dubbed Mulkearns’ handling of Ridsdale a “catastrophe for the church”.

He said Mulkearns was a prime candidate for the Vatican’s proposed tribunal for negligent bishops, although there is no indication the elderly Mulkearns would stand trial by the time the tribunal is operational.

Commission chairman Peter McClellan asked Pell whether it was surprising that he hadn’t heard rumours about the scandal.

“Not necessarily, given the work I was doing,” Pell said. “I wasn’t working full-time in the diocese.”

Furness said that as an adviser to the bishop — one of a group of Ballarat priests known as the College of Consultors — Pell should have questioned why Ridsdale was frequently transferred.

“I was happy to take the bishop’s word that it was appropriate for him to be shifted,” Pell said.

“Euphemistic language was used by Bishop Mulkearns, so some of us were kept in the dark,” he said.

Pell accompanied Ridsdale to court in 1993 when he faced his first child-molesting charges. He was convicted in 1993, 2006 and 2013 with sexually abusing more than 50 children.

"It's a sad story and wasn't of much interest to me" - George Pell speaking about Ballarat's Gerald Ridsdale #7News https://t.co/XzRAwkXzP2

— 7NEWS Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) February 29, 2016