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Cardinal George Pell has apologised for a meeting with abuse victims at which the father later said the then Melbourne Catholic Archbishop showed a “sociopathic lack of empathy”.

Calling that 1997 meeting at Oakleigh one of the most difficult he has ever been involved with, Cardinal Pell said: “My only intention was to listen to their story and to try to help. It is clear that I did not succeed in this.

“No matter what I said or did, it seemed to make things worse. I am sorry for whatever I did to upset them at this meeting. It was always my intention (and always has been) to treat Mr and Mrs Foster and their daughters with the utmost respect and compassion.”
Anthony and Chrissie Foster with a family portrait.

Anthony and Chrissie Foster with a family portrait. Photo: Craig Sillitoe

The cardinal's apology is part of his submission to the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled sexual abuse, submitted on Friday night and posted on the inquiry's website on Wednesday morning. On Monday he was the inquiry's last witness.
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“I am very sorry … for the suffering of the Foster family. I am also sorry that I have been unable to persuade Mr and Mrs Foster of my good intentions,” he said.

Anthony and Chrissie Foster, whose two daughters were repeatedly raped over years by Oakleigh priest Kevin O'Donnell, said they found Cardinal Pell's submission “infuriating”. “It was his harshness, heartlessness and arrogance that turned us into what we are today (anti-abuse campaigners)”, Mrs Foster said.
Cardinal George Pell.

Cardinal George Pell. Photo: Jeffrey Chan

“He says he wanted to help us. What did he take into that meeting to help us? If he'd said 'it's terrible, we try to keep paedophiles out, we're sorry', that would have been it, but he was arrogant and bombastic.”

Mr Foster said: “It sounds fair enough on paper, like many of his statements, but where are the actions that show he's sorry? The process he set up then went on to try to crush us.”

In his submission to the inquiry, Cardinal Pell covers a number of controversial areas about which witnesses have given evidence, including alleged failures over paedophile priests Gerald Ridsdale and Peter Searson and defending the delays in defrocking those convicted.

He says he did not know Ridsdale was a paedophile until the early 1990s, and realises that it was a mistake to accompany him to court in 1993. “I am sorry for the offence it caused.”

He denies he offered Ridsdale's nephew David hush-money, saying it would have made no sense as the police were already investigating. “I do not understand why David made the claims he did about our conversation in 1993. It is an ongoing source of sadness and mystery to me.”

Cardinal Pell remembers meeting two delegations of teachers from Holy Family Doveton who complained about serial abuser Peter Searson but says there was insufficient evidence to act.

The submission says “things are very different in the Catholic community today from the 1960s and 1970s. The church has upheld 224 complaints of sexual abuse from the 1970s, 82 from the 1980s, 12 from the 1990s and one from the decade from 2000.

It says: “Catholic authorities worked from the principle that the needs of victims must be our first consideration … Our starting point is one of contrition and respect.”

In evidence on Monday, Cardinal Pell said the reply to a letter from a victim's mother on May 9, more than three years after she wrote, was not the first time the church had responded. He said he had a recollection of a phone call by Sydney communications director Katrina Lee.

However, the mother, Clare Linane, whose son and son-in-law were both abused in Ballarat by Brother Edward Dowlan, said she was definitely not contacted in any form after sending her letter in April 2010.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/it-seemed-to-make-things-worse-pell-
sorry-over-meeting-20130529-2nb0b.html#ixzz2UfNgvIPh

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