It’s a sad story, and not of much interest to me.”
Back in March, that’s how Cardinal George Pell recalled the crimes of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale. That throwaway comment, given during testimony to the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, resonated so profoundly for more than its apparent callousness. For abuse survivors and their loved ones, it perfectly encapsulated the culture of silence, blame-shifting and sheer apathy among church and secular authorities that allowed men like Ridsdale to commit their crimes in the first place, and operate unchecked for decades.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/thefeed/article/2016/08/15/comment-nauru-don-dale-and-ballarat-australia-routinely-ignores-abuse-people-its
Back in March, that’s how Cardinal George Pell recalled the crimes of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale. That throwaway comment, given during testimony to the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, resonated so profoundly for more than its apparent callousness. For abuse survivors and their loved ones, it perfectly encapsulated the culture of silence, blame-shifting and sheer apathy among church and secular authorities that allowed men like Ridsdale to commit their crimes in the first place, and operate unchecked for decades.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/thefeed/article/2016/08/15/comment-nauru-don-dale-and-ballarat-australia-routinely-ignores-abuse-people-its