Abuse survivors arrive to hear cardinal testify
(28 Feb 2016) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Rome - 28 February 2016 1. Survivors of abuse and relatives of abuse victims arriving 2. Carabinieri military police at door to Hotel Quirinale where Australian Royal Commission on Child Abuse is holding testimony hearing 3. SOUNDBITE (English) David Ridsdale, victim of abuse: "The systemic, institutional child abuse around the world with priests and Christian brothers have been moved consistently and still are and we need the hierarchy of the Vatican to stand up and take responsibility rather than hide behind legal processes and please can you help us, heal the future. We don't want any more survivors in 50 years, we need to be the last of the survivors." 4. Victims and relatives at entrance of Hotel Quirinale 5. SOUNDBITE (English) David Ridsdale, victim of abuse: "These loud ribbons were started by friends of ours in Ballarat and they are all around the world. Every single ribbon represents a child being abused. And we would encourage everyone in the world to put ribbons on their churches, on their houses, on everywhere to show us all that you care and support us. Thank you." 6. Various of victims and relatives passing through door into the Hotel Quirinale STORYLINE: A group of Australians who were raped and molested by Catholic priests when they were children are hoping to learn the truth about what a top Vatican cardinal knew about their attackers when he testifies before an investigative commission at a Rome hotel late Sunday. Thanks in part to a crowd-funding campaign, about two dozen Australian sex abuse survivors and their companions travelled across the planet to be on hand when Cardinal George Pell testifies via video link before Australia's Royal Commission. It's the third time Pell, Pope Francis' top financial adviser, has testified about the abuse scandal, but the current round has generated intense international attention because it is taking place in the heart of Europe a short walk from the Vatican, and not in Australia. The commission, which is half-way through a 435 million Australian dollar (300 million US dollars) government-authorised probe into how all Australian institutions dealt with abuse, agreed to let Pell testify from Rome because he was too ill to travel home. Two weeks ago, it also agreed to let victims be on hand to re-create the type of public hearing that Pell would be subject to in Australia. David Ridsdale, who was abused for four years by his uncle, the notorious pedophile Gerald Ridsdale, said the hierarchy of the Vatican needed to "stand up and take responsibility", adding he and other victims must be made "the last of the survivors". The commission's current hearings relate to Ballarat and how the Melbourne archdiocese responded to allegations of abuse, including when Pell served as a Melbourne auxiliary bishop. The deeply Catholic city in Australia's Victoria state, has been devastated by a huge number of abuse victims, scores of whom have killed themselves in a cluster of abuse-related suicide unseen anywhere. Pell, who was born and raised in Ballarat, was ordained a priest there in 1966 and was a consultant to Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who moved Gerald Ridsdale between parishes for years. Pell has long denied allegations that he was involved in transferring Ridsdale - with whom he once lived at the Ballarat presbytery - and said he never tried to buy the silence of Ridsdale's nephew, as he alleges. =========================================================== Clients are reminded: Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
