CARDINAL George Pell has agreed he thought little of rumours he’d heard of colleagues’ child abuse during his time in Swan Hill, at the royal commission into the the Church’s knowledge of child abuse.
Cardinal Pell fronted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse for a third time this week, appearing via a video link from the Vatican after being deemed too ill to travel to Australia.
The Vatican official’s time in Swan Hill was a major focal point in the first day of his return to the witness seat, on Monday.
He was grilled about his knowledge of “rumours” and “gossip” that were known to have circulated through the Mildura and Swan Hill parish communities during his time as an assistant priest in Swan Hill between July 1971 and January 1973.
Cardinal Pell admitted to hearing such rumours from fellow parish priests, particularly relating to Mildura parish priest Monsignor John Day’s misconduct, however he said he didn’t make much of the chatter.
“I must say, in those days, if a priest denied such activity, I was very strongly inclined to accept the denial,” he told the commission.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (March 2).
