Catholic Church admits hush edict

  The admission came yesterday amid fresh allegations of repeated rape by a current serving brother and claims the Church denied for years that sexual abuse was occurring.
  A lawyer speaking for Dr Pell said confidentiality clauses had been kept in compensation agreements between the Church and sex abuse victims even though the Church's own policy forbade such conditions.
  Guild of Catholic Lawyers president John McCarthy QC said the Towards Healing charter explicitly stated there should be no restrictions on sex abuse victims speaking out.

  But he said investigations yesterday had revealed that the Church had maintained clauses that forced victims to keep silent about their experiences if they received compensation.
  This directive had not been appropriately implemented in deeds of release for settlements with victims.
  Customary confidentiality clauses had been maintained contrary to express directives. "Our bishops as much as victims have been affected by conduct which has gone unnoticed and unauthorised," he said.
  Mr McCarthy blamed "professionals who should have had more regard for the scheme's directives" for the secrecy clauses.
  Geoff Fitzpatrick, who accepted $50,000 through the Towards Healing program as compensation for being raped 14 times and physically abused up to 40 times by a brother between 1969-71, told Channel 9's Sixty Minutes program he was silenced by his contract.
  He said the document he signed forbade him speaking to anyone about the incidents, making any public comment or publishing anything on the matter.
  His claims followed revelations that a woman who was allegedly raped by a priest in 1983 -- and became pregnant -- was last month given $15,000 from the Church on condition she kept quiet about the matter.
  That came only a day after a joint statement by Dr Pell and Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart placed in newspapers said "victims are not prevented from discussing the abuse they have suffered" if they accept compensation from the Church.
  And that statement followed confusion created by Dr Pell over the issue, beginning with his comment on Channel 9's Sixty Minutes last week that sex abuse victims were in fact required to keep quiet if they accepted compensation.
  Dr Pell said afterwards that he had been "ambushed" in the interview and that there was in fact no such requirement.
  But yesterday he was forced to admit via Mr McCarthy that the requirement for confidentiality did in fact exist, including in his own archdiocese.
  Mr McCarthy said he had been authorised by Dr Pell to say that all such compensation agreements in Sydney would be remedied.
  Phil O'Donnell, a former priest who served in Victoria for 24 years, told Sixty Minutes last night that the Church had a strategy of denial and rejection.
  If Dr Pell had done his job, it might have saved many children from sexual abuse. -- AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

COMMENTS: The article above said "a week of denials" of "hush money" by Dr Pell, but denial was reported in The West from May 31, so it was more like 10 days. He had also threatened to go to law to stop the 60 Minutes programme from being televised. He was joined in these denials by Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart -- all in vain, because Dr Pell had already made the admission in these words (in the sixth-last paragraph of part 2 of the interview transcript): "There is a requirement that they don't talk about it." He also gave two reasons for making them swear to be silent. Notice that Dr Pell (nor Dr Hart) did not apologise for contradicting himself and misleading the public for 10 days.
  The following exchange also is hard to square with reality: "RICHARD CARLETON: Did David Ridsdale tell you that his uncle, Gerald, Father Gerald, had been abusing him? GEORGE PELL: Never. Never." Three more denials followed before he admitted it! Access the TV interview at: http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/sixtyminutes/stories/2002_06_02/story_603.asp
  LATE NEWS: More evidence that the "hush money" was well entrenched in the Church came to light late in 2002, with an admission by a Church executive officer that work was in progress to remove the silence clauses from documents, though the bishops had publicly said they were giving them up in 2000. Click "Healing Touch" or read Australian Catholics, Victoria, "Healing touch," by Kent Rosenthal SJ, Christmas 2002 (issued early Dec.), pp 22-23