Home // March 11-15 2013 > Cardinal Pell rejects media smear

Make Text Larger Make Text Smaller Email this Article to a Friend Print this Article

Cardinal Pell rejects media smear

Published: March 11, 2013

The Archdiocese of Sydney has rejected a Fairfax media report yesterday as "utterly false and seriously defamatory", the Archdiocese of Sydney said in a statement.

The Archdiocese said the story, which alleged that Cardinal Pell was “tainted by sex abuse scandals”, had no basis in fact and deliberately misrepresented the outcome of a 2002 inquiry by a retired Victorian Supreme Court judge which completely exonerated Cardinal Pell of allegations made against him.

"At all times, including in sworn evidence before the Southwell Inquiry, Cardinal Pell denied the allegations," the Archdiocese said.

"In the conclusion to his report after an exhaustive investigation, former Victorian Judge the Honourable AJ Southwell QC wrote:“I find I am not ‘satisfied that the complaint has been established’, to quote the words of the principal term of reference”, the Archdiocese's statement continued.

"As Judge Southwell explained in his report, he could not be satisfied that the complaint was established 'unless I were satisfied that the version of the complainant is truthful and substantially accurate'."

The Archdiocese added that Judge Southwell did not accept the complainant’s version of events, and that Cardinal Pell is innocent of the allegations.

"Indeed, (the Age journalist involved) Mr Zwartz correctly reported in an article published by the Age on 14 June 2010 that “Cardinal Pell stood down as Archbishop of Sydney in 2002 after he was accused of abusing a teenager at a church camp in the 1960s, but an independent investigation by a retired non-Catholic judge cleared him." Inexplicably, this has been omitted from Mr Zwartz’s latest article.

"As Archbishop in two cities Cardinal Pell has worked hard to eradicate the evil of sexual abuse from the Church and to show his deep compassion for victims and survivors of sexual abuse not just by words but also by actions.

"Instead of presenting these facts and the outcome of the Southwell Inquiry fairly as it should, the Fairfax press has opted to publish a smear of the most vindictive kind."

The Archdiocese said Fairfax and other media which are repeating this story are being contacted by Cardinal Pell’s lawyers.

(CathNews ran a different story on the subject yesterday but carried a link in its story to the Fairfax report.)

RELEASE IN FULL

Cardinal rejects media smear

RELATED COVERAGE

Cardinal Pell angered by newspaper smear (SBS)

 

Response to articles is welcome. Simply follow the prompts to post your comment. No posting of more than 250 words will be published. While critical comment on stories and issues is welcomed, postings that descend to personal attacks on or impugn the integrity of other commentators will be blocked. Please use your own name, or initials, eg John Brown, or JB, or JAB, or Johnny. You are also required to add your location - as in, Sunshine, Victoria. Please provide your email address in the line supplied, followed by your contact phone number. These are requested for identification purposes only and will not be published. If you have any problems, please email news@cathnews.com


 


^ Page Top

Bookmark and Share

More from this section

  1. Pope Francis soars to top of the charts on Twitter

    The white smoke belched from the Sistine Chapel as the ballots burned beneath Michelangelo's fresco - a new Pope with one lung had just been elected. And the world was breathlessly tweeting about him, reports AAP in the Herald Sun.

  2. New pope shifts Church's centre of gravity away from Europe

    The surprise selection of an Argentine, Cardinal as the new pope has shifted the gravity of the Roman Catholic Church from Europe to Latin America in one fell swoop, and served as an emphatic salute to the growing power of Latinos across the Americas, reports The New York Times.

  3. Jesuit superior pleased, others surprised by election of Jesuit pope

    The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to be pope "opens for the church a path full of hope ... at this crucial time," the Jesuit superior general said in Rome, reports NCR Online.

  4. Jews worldwide see ally in Pope Francis

    Jews worldwide have welcomed newly elected Pope Francis as a friend, pointing in particular to his sympathetic and strong reaction to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in his native Argentina -- the deadliest bombing in the country's history, reports NCR Online.

  5. World leaders welcome 'champion of the poor'

    World leaders from the US, UN, Argentina and the UK and many other countries, have welcomed the election of Pope Francis, reports the BBC. US President Barack Obama said: "I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis... As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than 2,000 years - that in each other we see the face of God."

Church Resources provides a range of services for the Church and not-for-profit sector, including aggregating buying power for a wide range of products and services used by health, welfare, aged care, education and parish organisations. More »

Mass streamed live daily

From Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, Waitara, in the Broken Bay Diocese.
Weekdays live at 9.30am
Saturdays live 9.30am (followed by Adoration and Benediction)
Sundays live 9.30am
Click on this link at the appropriate time to connect.

Subscribe

To receive headlines from our faith-based news services, please subscribe below.

Email address

Newsletter

 

News Feed

Subscribe to the CathNews RSS feed to get the daily edition automatically delivered to you.
Subscribe to Faith Project RSS.