David Marr: The hidden findings on George Pell are clear: he could have protected children from abuse. He didn't
This is the portrait
of a deceitful man. We have waited over two and a half years but now we can
read the unflinching verdict reached by the Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Cardinal George Pell. With its last findings
made public, it’s clear that no senior figure in any church who gave evidence
to the commission has emerged as damaged as Pell.
Tolling through those
hitherto secret pages is the underlying verdict of the commission: that Pell
might have, but did not, take action to protect the children of the Catholic
community he served as a priest in Ballarat and bishop in Melbourne. Pell’s excuses for
doing so little are dissected forensically and rejected one by one. The
commissioners condemn key claims in the cardinal’s evidence as implausible,
inconceivable, untenable and unacceptable.
The clamour around the
royal commission has long died down. It’s two and a half years since it
produced its final report in a stack of volumes. The findings against Pell were
hidden in there like a buried ordnance, exploding only now. We always knew this
was going to be bad for the cardinal. A clean bill of health might have seen
the light of day at any time. But these findings were redacted so as not to
poison the minds of jurors in the criminal trials he faced in Melbourne....
