Pell Legit Ignored An Alleged Child Abuser, Assumed He’d Just Get “Help”

One snippet, delivered from Rome via videolink, is particularly damning for the embattled Cardinal. After being grilled about his knowledge of Christian Brother Ted Dowlan’s alleged sex offences in Ballarat and Dowlan’s subsequent retrenchments, Pell told the royal commission he didn’t investigate the “unfortunate rumours about his activity with young people.”

Those rumours turned out to be true. Dowlan abused kids at four other schools after that point. And Pell was the head honcho of Catholic education in the diocese at the time, but the police weren’t informed before Dowlan’s moves. 

Pell also appeared to palm off responsibility for the matter to other Christian Brothers, and he said he assumed they “would be dealing adequately with the matter.” He also, stunningly, “presumed when they shifted him, they would have arranged for some appropriate help.”

Wondering what ‘help’ would be? Well, we’re sure any conventional definition of the word doesn’t include shuffling a child abuser between posts, but here we are. The Cardinal also said he regretted not telling the Bishop more at that point, but maintained his belief the Christian Brothers system would have sorted the issue out. 

Of course, all of this comes after he said other rumours of abuse didn’t really interest him that much.

The group of survivors gathered in Rome are pushing for a private audience with Pope Francis once Pell’s questioning ends. We imagine the abuse may be of interest to him. 

Source: The Guardian. 
Photo: Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses Into Child Abuse / The Guardian.