Pope Francis Defrock Pell
Title: Clergy abuse survivor draws support for petition to defrock Pell
Author: Matt Neal
Publisher: ABC News
Date: 11MAY2020
A petition started by a clergy abuse survivor has received more than 30,000 signatures supporting his call for Cardinal George Pell to be defrocked.
Key points:
- Clergy abuse survivor Paul Levey has started a petition calling for Cardinal George Pell to be defrocked
- The petition has attracted 32,000 signatures in 48 hours
- Mr Levey created the petition following the release of the Royal Commission’s previously redacted findings, which Cardinal Pell says weren’t supported by evidence
Paul Levey, who was abused by convicted paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, began the Change.org petition on Friday and said he was surprised by the response.
“The first night I went to bed and it was at 600 and I thought that was fantastic. Now, I think it’s around 32,000 signatures,” Mr Levey said.
Mr Levey was 13 when he was sent to live with Ridsdale in the presbytery in Mortlake, in south-west Victoria, where he was abused daily for six months.
He said the release of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse’s previously redacted findings into Cardinal Pell inspired him to start the petition.
The Royal Commission found that Cardinal Pell was told at a meeting in 1982 that Ridsdale was being moved from Mortlake because of his alleged sexual abuse of children, although it made no finding that Cardinal Pell was aware of specific cases of abuses.
Mr Levey said he plans to send the petition to Pope Francis, Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli, and Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird.
“Hopefully it’ll show them there’s a lot of people out there that aren’t happy with the way things are done with the Catholic Church,” he said.
For more information visit: https://amp.abc.net.au/article/12232788
To sign and share Paul’s petition: