Greens want Pell to come home and testify

Cardinal George Pell has described as “a political stunt” a Greens’ motion adopted by Australia’s Senate. The motion calls on him to return to his homeland to face the Royal Commission inquiring into child sexual abuse by institutions including the Church, writes Mark Brolly.

In a statement in Rome on 9 February, a spokesman for the Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy at the Vatican said the Greens’ “anti-religion agenda is notorious and most fair-minded Australians would see this motion as pathetic point-scoring”.

The motion, proposed by Senator Rachel Siewert, noted in part that allegations of criminal misconduct against Cardinal Pell had been forwarded to the Office of Public Prosecutions in Victoria by the police, and “calls on Cardinal George Pell to return to Australia to assist the Victorian Police and Office of Public Prosecutions with their investigations into these matters”.

The chief commissioner of Victoria Police, Graham Ashton, confirmed that a brief of evidence against Cardinal Pell regarding sexual assault allegations had been returned to the Office of Public Prosecutions for further consideration. There is no suggestion Cardinal Pell is guilty of the allegations, only that they are being investigated, and the cardinal has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

The president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, Terry O’Gorman, said it was imperative that politicians and other community leaders don’t whip up hysteria about matters arising from the Royal Commission as that would negatively affect “balanced and serious consideration” of the commission’s final recommendations, to be delivered late this year.
(See View from Rome, page 27)