Inquiry: Pell knew of abuse by Australian pedophile priest

Australian Cardinal George Pell knew a priest had been moved decades ago because he had sexually abused children and should have suspended an unstable priest in another parish, a government inquiry concluded.

A report from the inquiry on child sexual abuse had been released in 2017, but findings concerning Pope Francis’ former finance minister had been redacted until Thursday to avoid prejudicing juries in any future prosecutions.

The government decided to release the full report after the High Court last month overturned convictions against Pell on charges alleging he molested two choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral in the late 1990s when he was an archbishop.

The 78-year-old cleric spent 13 months in prison before being cleared and released last month.

The rejected Pell’s evidence in 2016 that he was deceived and lied to by Catholic Church officials about Australia’s worst pedophile priest, Gerald Ridsdale, and Melbourne parish priest Peter Searson.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse findings related to Pell’s knowledge of abuse allegations while a priest and adviser to the local bishop in his hometown of Ballarat and a Melbourne bishop in the 1970s and 1980s.

(Representative Image)