Vatican cleric’s remarks on child abuse spark row

Sydney: Australia’s leading Catholic cleric George Pell, a top Vatican official, came under fire on Friday after drawing an analogy between the church’s response to child abuse and a trucking company.

 

Cardinal Pell, head of a new Vatican finance ministry, made the comments on Thursday. He acknowledged to a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Melbourne that the church had a moral obligation to the victims of paedophile priests.

 

But he suggested that when it came to its legal responsibility, the actions of its priests were not necessarily the fault of the church, citing the hypothetical example of a woman being molested by a truck driver. 

 

“If the truck driver picks up some lady and then molests her, I don’t think it’s appropriate, because it is contrary to the policy, for the ownership, the leadership of that company to be held responsible,” he said.