George Pell removed expression of regret from letter to abuse victim John Ellis

The royal commission into child sexual abuse saw the tracked changes of edits made by Dr Pell to a draft letter to John Ellis, a former altar boy who suffered years of abuse at the hands of a Sydney priest, Father Aidan Duggan.

Mr Ellis said the letter, which he received on Christmas Eve, 2002, felt like the church was slamming the door in his face by rejecting his complaint.

The original draft, prepared by the church’s former director of professional standards John Davoren, suggested an expression that the church “very much regret any hurt that you have experienced”. Dr Pell told the commission he removed the reference to regret because it was “illogical”.

“Because if hurt had been caused that would indicate that the case was established,” he said.

“If the case could not be established then the hurt could not be established – that was my reasoning, I was attempting to be honest.” Dr Pell also removed a sentence which read “as you are aware, this is not to suggest you are not believed”.

He told the commission the sentence was “inconsistent” with the church’s position that Mr Ellis’s case could not be established. “The whole point of this letter was to say the matter couldn’t be resolved and I don’t like talking out of both sides of my mouth, especially to a victim,” Dr Pell said.

The commission also saw edits where Dr Pell deleted a reference to Mr Ellis’s desire to “achieve some peace of mind” by meeting with Father Duggan, saying instead that he understood Mr Ellis wished for a meeting.

“I didn’t want him to be feeling that something was going to be done which wasn’t going to be done,” Dr Pell said.

“Obviously I was keen for him to have peace of mind but I didn’t want to mislead him.” Under questioning from Commissioner Peter McClellan, Dr Pell agreed that his position that Mr Ellis’s story could not be established because Fr Duggan could not respond was wrong and not in accordance with the church’s own procedures for abuse complaints.

Dr Pell also disputed records that show the Sydney Archdiocese has had complaints against 55 priests of child sex abuse since 2001.

Data provided to the commission showed complaints had been made about 55 ordained clerics since March 2001, said Gail Furness SC, counsel advising the commission.

The earliest of the alleged offences happened in 1952.

“I’m aware (of that data) but according to our statistics it’s inaccurate,” Dr Pell said.

He said he had documents that showed there had been 91 complaints but quite a number were multiple complaints about individuals.

“Rather than 55, there were 29 priests so accused,” he said. He offered the commission his data.

Ms Furness asked him to accept the 55 figure for now, which would mean that six per cent of the 842 clergy employed in Sydney since 1952 were sexual offenders.

Dr Pell said he would be surprised if Sydney was two per cent above the national average, which had been assessed by the church at between four per cent or five per cent of clergy.

He stressed that the church’s approach had changed.

Earlier Dr Pell told the royal commission heard that the Vatican believed that victims of child sex abuse who came forward to make complaints against Catholic priests were “enemies of the church”, trying to “make trouble” and were therefore not believed.

“The attitude of some people in the Vatican was that if accusations were being made against priests, they were being made exclusively or, if not, predominantly by the enemies of the church to make trouble,’’ Dr Pell said

“Therefore, they should be dealt with sceptically and therefore I think there was more of an inclination to give the benefit of the doubt to the defendant rather than listen seriously to the complainant,” Cardinal Pell said.

That attitude changed, he said, after a delegation of US bishops visited the Vatican to lobby on behalf of abuse victims.

“They explained vigorously … that it wasn’t just enemies of the church who were doing it, as the Nazis had done and possibly the communists, in fact they were genuine complaints, good people, people who loved the church.”

The Cardinal, who leaves Australia to take up a new senior role within the Vatican on Monday, is giving evidence during an inquiry into the church’s handling of a controversial abuse case involving a Sydney bishop.

Dr Pell gave evidence that he drove the establishment of a committee to deal with sexual abuse by clergy while Archbishop of Melbourne after 1996 because he saw an urgent need for an effective system for dealing with victims of abuse.

The Melbourne Response, which included a cap on potential payments to abuse victims, was developed because it was more independent than a national plan, Towards Healing, being developed by the church, Dr Pell said.

Commissioner Peter McClellan asked Dr Pell if he appreciated that many people did not see the Melbourne commissioner as independent.

Dr Pell said he thought it was “most unfortunate and very unjust” that the commissioner’s integrity had been impugned.

Earlier, Dr Pell was greeted as he arrived outside the royal commission by people demanding that he tell the truth.

The cardinal arrived in a white car just before 9am at Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney.

As he was driven into the car park, a placard saying “tell the truth to the Royal Commission” was pressed up against the window of his car.

Jenny Brownley from Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) practically stopped the car and made sure the cardinal, sitting in the passenger’s seat, saw her message.

At the entrance to the car park, a sign reminded the church that children had suffered at the hands of its priests.

On the Farrar Place side of the tower, where the hearing is underway on the 17th floor, the CLAN group added extra signage to the red placards calling on the Catholic Church to own up to its “sins”.

One sign called on Cardinal Pell to confess.

On the packed 17th floor, abuse victim John Ellis was clapped as he arrived.

Mr Ellis is the man whose experiences with the church when he complained about abuse by a priest is the subject of the hearing by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The hearing is now in its third week.

Additional reporting: Dan Box