Cardinal George Pell on priest convicted of abusing over 50 children: ‘It’s a sad story and wasn’t of much interest to me’

The Cardinal is testifying on the systemic sexual abuse of children in Australia in the 1970s within the Roman Catholic Church

Australia's Cardinal George Pell giving evidence via video-link from a hotel in Rome to the Royal Commission in Sydney (AFP/Getty Images)

Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s treasurer and the highest-ranking official to testify in Australia’s inquiry into historic child sexual abuse within the clergy, called the violation of more than 50 children by one priest a subject that “wasn’t of much interest” to him.

Speaking via video link from Rome, Mr Pell told Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse that he did not tell his superiors of the rumours circulating of abuse in the 1970s.

The Australian Cardinal was a priest in the city of Ballarat in the early 1970s and is being questioned on his knowledge of widespread sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy in the area over a period of decades.

Protesters outside the Royal Commission in Sydney. Cardinal Pell has been accused of ignoring claims of widespread sex abuse in Ballarat during the second half of the 20th century (EPA)

The Australian Cardinal said he had assumed senior clergy had been handling reports of sexual abuse committed by at least one priest who had been moved to another parish, and told the inquiry: “I would concede I should have done more.”

His testimony to the inquiry has taken on wider implications about the accountability of church leaders.

When asked about the abuse carried out by Gerald Risdale, a priest he had lived in the same seminary with and who has since been convicted of 138 offences against more than 50 children in Australia, Mr Pell said he did not know about the allegations.

“It’s a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me,” he said, prompting gasps.

Protesters outside the Royal Commission headquarters in Sydney demand Pope Francis fire Cardinal Pell over the alleged cover-up of abuse in Ballarat (EPA)

The Australian hearing into started on the same night that the film Spotlight, a film detailing similar abuses in the Catholic church in America, won an Oscar for best picture. The film details The Boston Globe newspaper’s uncovering of systemic paedophilia within the church in the Massachusetts city, and of abusive bishops being move to different parishes instead of being defrocked.

Mr Pell told the Commission earlier in the hearing that the church made "enormous mistakes" and "catastrophic" choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish and over-relying on counselling of priests to solve the problem. He also said senior clergy lied to him to cover up abuse.

Last year, Mr Pell denied accusations made at Commission hearings that he had tried to bribe a victim to remain quiet, that he ignored another complaint and that he was complicit in the transfer of a paedophile priest.

Additional reporting by Reuters News Agency