Vatican finance chief George Pell on Thursday described a meeting with Australian victims of priest sex abuse as "hard" and vowed to work to ensure suicide "is not an option" for them.
Just hours after admitting to an Australian Royal Commission that he "should have done more" to follow-up claims a priest in his charge was abusing boys, Pell met victims of abuse from Ballarat near Melbourne.
"I've just met with about a dozen of the Ballarat survivors, support people and officials, and I've heard each of their stories and of their suffering," he told reporters in a pre-prepared statement. "It was hard."
Referring to the high number of suicides linked to abuse by priests Pell was in charge of, the powerful Cardinal added: "One suicide is too many, too many.
"And there have been many such tragic suicides. I commit myself to working with the group to strive to stop this, so that suicide is not seen as an option for those who are suffering.
"Now I shouldn't promise what might be impossible. We all know how hard it is to get things done. But I do want it known that I support the work to investigate the feasibility of a research centre to enhance healing and improve protection."
Surrounded by a huge security detail, Pell declined to take any questions from the dozens of journalists waiting outside Rome's Quirinale Hotel to quiz him after the encounter.
- 'Perfect family the Church destroyed' -
A parent of victims, Anthony Foster, brandished pictures of his two daughters at the age (between five and seven) that they were abused by a Catholic priest.
"A Catholic priest was raping them when this photo was taken, at this age. And that's why we've been fighting for so long," he said.
Asked what he wanted from the Church, Foster replied: "Humility. Begging forgiveness from us. Doing everything they can to restore the lives of all the victims out there.
"Words is what we get. We need some real action, we need the whole weight of the Church put behind helping these victims and ensuring it doesn't happen again. That's what we need."
And despite Pell having been willing to meet with his group, Foster said he believed the cardinal had not come completely clean to the Royal Commission about his role in covering up abuse.
"We got somewhere, I think there'll be some pretty damning findings about what George Pell did, but there's still a long way to go. George Pell was the auxiliary bishop in our area, looking after the priests who did that to my girls."
His daughter Emma killed herself with an overdose when she was 26, while her sister Katie was hit by a car after a drinking binge and is now severely disabled and needs full-time care.
Holding up another picture of himself, his wife and their three daughters, he said: "This was my perfect family.
"And this is the perfect family the Catholic Church destroyed through not monitoring its priests... and allowing them to rape children".
Vatican finance chief George Pell on Thursday described a meeting with Australian victims of priest sex abuse as “hard” and vowed to work to ensure suicide “is not an option” for them.
Just hours after admitting to an Australian Royal Commission that he “should have done more” to follow-up claims a priest in his charge was abusing boys, Pell met victims of abuse from Ballarat near Melbourne.
“I’ve just met with about a dozen of the Ballarat survivors, support people and officials, and I’ve heard each of their stories and of their suffering,” he told reporters in a pre-prepared statement. “It was hard.”
Referring to the high number of suicides linked to abuse by priests Pell was in charge of, the powerful Cardinal added: “One suicide is too many, too many.
“And there have been many such tragic suicides. I commit myself to working with the group to strive to stop this, so that suicide is not seen as an option for those who are suffering.
“Now I shouldn’t promise what might be impossible. We all know how hard it is to get things done. But I do want it known that I support the work to investigate the feasibility of a research centre to enhance healing and improve protection.”
Surrounded by a huge security detail, Pell declined to take any questions from the dozens of journalists waiting outside Rome’s Quirinale Hotel to quiz him after the encounter.
– ‘Perfect family the Church destroyed’ –
A parent of victims, Anthony Foster, brandished pictures of his two daughters at the age (between five and seven) that they were abused by a Catholic priest.
“A Catholic priest was raping them when this photo was taken, at this age. And that’s why we’ve been fighting for so long,” he said.
Asked what he wanted from the Church, Foster replied: “Humility. Begging forgiveness from us. Doing everything they can to restore the lives of all the victims out there.
“Words is what we get. We need some real action, we need the whole weight of the Church put behind helping these victims and ensuring it doesn’t happen again. That’s what we need.”
And despite Pell having been willing to meet with his group, Foster said he believed the cardinal had not come completely clean to the Royal Commission about his role in covering up abuse.
“We got somewhere, I think there’ll be some pretty damning findings about what George Pell did, but there’s still a long way to go. George Pell was the auxiliary bishop in our area, looking after the priests who did that to my girls.”
His daughter Emma killed herself with an overdose when she was 26, while her sister Katie was hit by a car after a drinking binge and is now severely disabled and needs full-time care.
Holding up another picture of himself, his wife and their three daughters, he said: “This was my perfect family.
“And this is the perfect family the Catholic Church destroyed through not monitoring its priests… and allowing them to rape children”.
