Cardinal George Pell makes frequent trips away from his Rome
headquarters. For example, in March-April 2015, he made a secret trip by
air to Australia, and then he returned to Rome in time to "appear" by video-link (instead of really appearing in person)
for a public hearing of Australia's national child-abuse Royal
Commission a few weeks later (in May 2015). The Commissioners had
approved Pell's May 2015 video-link because of the long distance if Pell
had to fly to Australia from Rome. The Commissioners did not know of
Pell's recent secret trip but the trip became known by the time of the
May 2015 hearing. And Pell's video-link in May 2015 turned out to be a
technological disaster.
The Commissioners then asked Pell to appear in person at his next scheduled public hearing in Australia (in December 2015) but Pell refused and his lawyers submitted a "sick note" (signed by one of his own doctors, not an independent one), citing his long-standing "health problems" (as a 74-year-old man) as grounds for getting yet another video-link. Meanwhile, a few weeks before his December 2015 "sick note", Pell travelled from Rome to France to tour the World War One battlefields (but Pell doesn't have "health problems" in France, only in Australia). Pell's next non-appearance by video-link is to be on 29 February 2016. Thus, Pell seems to be in no hurry to re-visit Australia while civil investigations are under way into allegations about clergy sexual abuse and allegations about the church's culture of cover-up.
http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/391
The Commissioners then asked Pell to appear in person at his next scheduled public hearing in Australia (in December 2015) but Pell refused and his lawyers submitted a "sick note" (signed by one of his own doctors, not an independent one), citing his long-standing "health problems" (as a 74-year-old man) as grounds for getting yet another video-link. Meanwhile, a few weeks before his December 2015 "sick note", Pell travelled from Rome to France to tour the World War One battlefields (but Pell doesn't have "health problems" in France, only in Australia). Pell's next non-appearance by video-link is to be on 29 February 2016. Thus, Pell seems to be in no hurry to re-visit Australia while civil investigations are under way into allegations about clergy sexual abuse and allegations about the church's culture of cover-up.
http://brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/391