Unredacted Royal Commission Findings Reveal Pell Knew about Pedophile Priests

Clergy abuse survivors outside the Sydney Royal Commission hearings into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse in March 2014. Photo Bernadette Smith.

The unredacted report from the Royal Commission hearings into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse originally redacted to avoid prejudicing Cardinal Pell's trial was finally released this week after Pell's successful appeal against his conviction for abusing altar boys last April. The Royal Commission found that Pell knew that fellow Ballarat priest Gerald Ridsdale was abusing children but failed to act. According to ABC news: "In its report on the Ballarat diocese, the commission said it was satisfied that Cardinal Pell — who was an assistant priest at Ballarat East in 1973 — had considered the "prudence" of Gerald Ridsdale taking boys on overnight camps. The commission found Ridsdale's victims likely stretched into the hundreds." https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-07/royal-commission-findings-on-cardinal-george-pell-released/12217362