#CardinalPell too sick to testify in Australian #ChildAbuse hearing wolfs down steak, chips and beer

Australia's most senior Catholic pictured strolling through Piazza Navona in Rome with a colleague before they sit down at the Caffe Domiziano restaurant to enjoy a beer.

Cardinal Pell pictured enjoying meal of steak and chips in Rome - washed down his food with a tall glass of beer.

Drink Up Cardinal Pell - on Parishioner's Money

Daily Mail Australia reports that Cardinal George Pell said he was too ill to fly home to Australia to face questioning at the Child Abuse Royal Commission. Pell, 74, submitted a two-page medical report in February which stated a flight to Australia to give evidence would severely impact his health and possibly lead to 'heart failure'. So he gave his testimony via video link. A few weeks later Pell was seen eating a heavy meal and drinking beer.

Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell is considered the number three in the Vatican and in charge of their finances. He heads the Vatican’s Secretariat on the Economy. Cardinal Pell was questioned by the abuse royal commission over pedophile priests in the Ballarat and Melbourne dioceses when he was serving there in the 1970s and 80s. He turned a blind eye to the abuse of children by members of the clergy. Pell admitted that his denials of a cover-up angered abuse victims who said he must have known.

Cardinal Pell was questioned about notorious Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale, who was jailed on pedophile charges in 1994, and about other pedophile priests in the Ballarat and Melbourne dioceses. Pell admitted that, among other things, he knew first-hand a young boy was being abused by a cleric named Brother Edward Dowlan in 1974. Ridsdale was convicted between 1993 and 2013 of 130 incidents of child sexual abuse (including his own nephew) and indecent assault charges against children aged as young as four years. Pell said Ridsdale was “undoubtedly a capable man and was not someone people complained about to him at the time.”

Pell had to know what Ridsdale did. They were in seminary and working in parishes together for many years. In 1982, when Ridsdale had been abusing children for 20 years, a clergy committee (of which the then Father George Pell was a member) transferred Ridsdale away from Victoria to inflict victims in New South Wales. When detectives charged Ridsdale in court in 1993 he was accompanied to court by his support person, assistant bishop George Pell.

A mother of six children abused by a Ballarat clergyman 30 years ago says she was 'absolutely disgusted' when photos revealed Cardinal George Pell devouring a meal of steak and chips and drinking beer in a Rome restaurant. Mrs Lane's six children were all victims of abuse by family friend Brother Grant Ross, and her second son John took his life at age 19. 'He’s doing that even with a bad heart?' Mrs Lane told Daily Mail Australia.

Pell admitted to blatant accusations that he failed to act when he was told about one young girl who was made to kneel between the legs of a priest during weekly confession, and he claimed that the corroborated allegations of sexual abuse of young children against another priest were sad, but “weren’t of much interest to me.” In almost every case presented to him, and there were many, he explained away his inaction by victim blaming or offering what became his blanket excuse that “no one asked me” to intervene.

Pell has always refused to resign from his high-ranking position. 'I wouldn't resign as that would be taken as an admission of guilt,' Cardinal Pell said. Pell said he was in Rome trying to do with Vatican finances what he did to clean up pedophilia in Melbourne: which is nothing. He admitted that he would not point a finger at a cleric covering up abuse or committing it in Australia because he is a Vatican official and the problem is for Australian authorities to deal with.  Eat hearty, Cardinal Pell – your heart is already cold.