PM defends Pell’s handling of abuse scandal

The Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended Cardinal George Pell as “a fine human being and a great churchman” after the Archbishop of Sydney was criticised in “Betrayal of Trust”, a Victorian parliamentary report into child abuse, writes Mark Brolly.

Mr Abbott, who studied for the priesthood in the 1980s, said Cardinal Pell was the first senior cleric to take abuse seriously but acknowledged that the issue had not been  handled well by the Church.

“I suspect a generation ago there was this general view in our community that certain things just didn’t happen,” Mr Abbott said in an interview with Melbourne 3AW radio’s Neil Mitchell on 14 November. “We all know now that they did happen. It was hideous, it  cost some people their lives … it has rightly damaged the reputations of institutions that otherwise deserve our respect.”

He went on: “As is pretty well known, I have a lot of time for George Pell. Does that mean that he is perfect? No. Does that mean that he doesn’t bear some responsibility for the errors of the Church? Of course not. [But] my understanding is [he was] the first senior cleric that took this issue very seriously.”
Cardinal Pell has welcomed the report.