AUSTRALIA: Australia's leading Catholic prelate denied yesterday he had tried to cover up accusations of child sex abuse when he was an auxiliary archbishop in the early 1990s. The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr George Pell, said allegations due to be aired this Sunday on the 60 Minutes TV programme were untrue.
A family friend of the archbishop, Mr David Ridsdale, was to allege on the programme that he was offered a house or a car in exchange for keeping quiet about being sexually abused by his uncle. Mr Ridsdale's uncle is a former priest in Melbourne, where Dr Pell was an auxiliary bishop.
"In the course of my interview with 60 Minutes it was alleged that I said to David words to the effect of 'what will it take to keep you quiet'," Dr Pell said. "I emphatically and totally deny having said these words or words to that effect." Dr Pell said he was considering legal action.
Last week the Sydney Sun Herald claimed paedophile clerics in the Catholic Church in Australia were not being expelled despite an edict from the Vatican to do so. The Catholic Church's spokesman on sexual abuse matters, Bishop Pat Power of Canberra, said priests and brothers guilty of sex crimes would be removed from ministering to the public but would stay in the clergy. That was despite an edict from Pope John Paul II, who last month declared paedophilia an "appalling sin", the newspaper reported.