At the end of nearly 20 hours giving evidence to the Royal Commission investigating child abuse in Australia, Cardinal George Pell has not enhanced his reputation. The former archbishop of both Sydney and Melbourne and current head of the Vatican’s finance department was never likely to come out well from such a grilling. The purpose of the video-link hearing was to explore how the Catholic Church came to overlook the activities of numerous priests who engaged, over a period of years, in the sexual abuse of children. That church authorities negligently overlooked these activities is beyond dispute. Whether Cardinal Pell in his former role as a relatively junior priest in the diocese of Ballarat was one of those doing the overlooking is where the main thrust of the investigation focused.  

He can anticipate being criticised by the commission, mainly for failing to respond to rumours and reports of child abuse happening on a horrendous scale in one particular institution in Ballarat.